Travel
Rose-Hulman reimburses travel expenses for a campus interview. We will book the local accommodations and arrange to have all the local meals taken care of. The only expenses that you need to be directly reimbursed for are the travel and meals en route. Plane travel should be routed to Indianapolis as Terre Haute does not have passenger service at the local airport. If you are unable to take advantage of a rental car at the airport, we can arrange a pickup. Here are travel directions and campus map for Rose-Hulman. Directions to lodgings will be sent separately as the lodging location varies.
SCHEDULE
The canonical interview schedule starts with arrival the night before, full day interview, and then departure the next day.
The typical full day interview goes something like the schedule below, times are approximate. Of course, these will be modified to adjust the RHIT schedules and candidates' schedules, or if it is appropriate to meet other members of the Rose community.
- 7:30 A.M. Breakfast with Dept Head or faculty member followed by a drive through various residential areas of Terre Haute on the way to RHIT
- 9:00 arrive at RHIT to begin
- if not accomplished at breakfast, a meeting with the Dept Head (job duties, benefits, various candidate requirements,
- meeting(s) with Dean, Academic Vice President and/or President (overview of RHIT faculty expectations)
- 1 on 1 meetings with various math faculty
- meeting with Human Resources
- 12:00 Lunch with various math faculty
- 1:00 Campus tour
- Continuation with the morning meetings mostly 1-1 meetings with faculty
- Meet with a few students
- 3:00 or 4:00 Presentation 45 minutes followed by informal discussion with faculty
- Break prior to dinner
- More driving through neighborhoods on the way to restaurant
- 6:00 or so: Dinner with faculty.
- 8:00 or so: Wrap up and return to lodgings.
THE TALK
Please plan a 45-minute presentation, including time for questions, on a topic of your choice. The presentation will be given to a mixed audience of undergraduate students (usually juniors and seniors), mathematics faculty members, and perhaps faculty members from the engineering or science departments. The topic should be one by which we can judge
- the quality of your presentation skills,
- your ability to understand and focus a talk to the target audience (described below), and
- you as a mathematician.
The majority of the talk should be accessible and enlightening to the entire audience, both students and faculty members. The students will generally have a solid background in calculus, differential equations, and basic probability and statistics. Some time should thus be spent introducing the topic and explaining examples and/or applications. Faculty interests and areas of expertise are diverse in the department, and your presentation should not be directed at the few faculty whose interests coincide with your own. The goal of the talk should be to enlighten the audience members and make us interested in the topic. By the end of the talk, the audience should be able to understand some results, an application, and maybe the possibility for further work on this topic. But most of all, the audience should walk out the door excited and wanting more.
The room will have an overhead projector, marker boards and computer projector.
The title and abstract should be sent a few days in advance so that we can advertise it to the Rose community.
Decision and interview culture
- Though the hiring committee selects candidates for the on-campus interview, hiring recommendations are a collaborative effort of the entire department. Final approval of the recommendations is through discussion with the Dean, Department Head, Academic Vice President, and President. Therefore, we strive for each candidate to have some interaction time with all faculty members, Dean, Academic Vice President, and President (if available), through 1-1 meetings, meals, or the presentation.
- We seek input from students and staff.
- The job talk is important and should meet the criteria laid out in the above paragraph.
- Please do not hesitate to ask different faculty the same question. We want to be sure that you understand Rose-Hulman, the department, and Terre Haute as well as we want to understand you.
Check out some typical questions and answers you might hear in a typical math faculty candidate interview.
CONTACT
Dept Head: David Rader
Dept Administrative Assistant: Katie Lindsey
