Interviews..from the InterviewER's point of view..

<p>I came across the thread about the scholarship interviews that took place a few weekends back. As one of the interviewers, I can tell you that they AS A WHOLE went very well. (Thats not to say there weren't a few screw ups). I don't know if I actually interviewed any of you personally or not, so there are-- of course-- no guarantees.</p>

<p>What I can tell you is that the interview results were taken into serious consideration when choosing scholarship recipients (I'm not sure if the letters have gone out yet...), so if you do recieve a scholarship..bravo! you probably had a great interview. If not, it doesn't mean that your interview went terribly...just that there were a lot of qualified applicants and we really had to pin the best against the best. </p>

<p>This was the first year for interviews, that much is true. The reason for the interviews this year is that as the school becomes more competitive there are a lot more well qualified applicants that can recieve these scholarships. I can tell you that in the interviews we were only looking at the top 2% of applicants, so if you even had an interview at all you can pat yourself on the back. However, GPAs and SAT scores only go so high, so the number of applicants in the "top 2%" is growing and growing each year! This is why it was decided that we needed something else to go by: interviews. </p>

<p>There was a set list of questions for the interviewers to try to cram into that half hour time slot we had to meet with you. So we did our best, and I apologize if it seemed you were badgered uncontrollably with questions you could hardly keep up with...that wasn't our intention! If your interviewers took notes (my team personally, didn't)...don't worry they weren't writing down your answers! The purpose of the interview was to get a general judge of character. Believe it or not, it wasn't a test. The results of each interview were of course very subjective which is why there was more than one person interviewing you (it's always nice to have more than one opinion on such an important decision).</p>

<p>At the end of the interview we ranked 1-5 on whether we thought a scholarship should be awarded and why, according to the criteria that was laid out by each scholarship description. </p>

<p>From the end of the interviewer, these scholarship interviews were a great success. I hope you guys feel the same way! If you have any questions, feel free to post back and I'll do my best to answer. There are certain things that I probably can't tell you, but for generalized questions...shoot away.</p>

<p>So, if a student was not interviewed does that mean they willot get any merit scholarship award at all? Or was the interviews for the full scholarships?</p>

<p>Also, if you already enrolled does that hurt your chances for a scholarship?</p>

<p>The interviews were only for the Ell, Bunche, and Lewis Scholarships..which are the three stop scholarships we offer. There are a whole bunch of others you're still eligible for even if you didn't get invited for an interview!</p>

<p>Actually, contrary to popular belief--already being enrolled at NU doesn't really hurt your chances for merit money at all...if anything, it lets them know that you're a good candidate for the money.</p>

<p>what sort of screw ups? can i be given a hypothetical example, might help for those browsing here next year,lol. </p>

<p>"was a set list of questions for the interviewers to try to cram into that half hour time slot we had to meet with you. "</p>

<p>haha i saw some interviews end in only 10 mins or less... ? does time even make a difference?</p>

<p>As far as specific examples of screwing up the interview--it really depends on which interviewing team you had and what they were looking for. The worst we saw was a girl who just didn't give us a chance to get a word in...I think she talked for the entire half hour, and not about anything college related! when she left and we had to fill the forms out, basically all we knew about her was what she thought of the weather that day. Most people, even if they were nervous...managed to calm down enough to let us do what we needed to do, so I really wouldn't worry.</p>

<p>I don't think it matters if some interviews were shorter than others, because I'm not sure exactly how other teams ran theirs. I know for us, if we saw we had a lot of time left we'd keep talking to the student even if we had all the information we needed. It's possible that some interviewers didn't do that. We also spent a lot of time introducing and trying to make the student less nervous. we really took advantage of the max. amount of time that we could use on each interview. If other teams didn't take the full half hour, I don't think that means they would rate you any less for it.</p>

<p>ok thanks for the reply will prob help for whoever goes next year!</p>