Scholarship Competition Days

<p>My ds is invited to 2 scholarship competition days to compete for presidential scholarships.<br>
He was told the evaluation would include a written essay and an interview. The top 25% of the participants will be awarded quite a bit of scholarship money. Does anyone have any idea the types of questions he might be asked in an interview? He has interviewed for acceptance into the specific program he applied to. How do these interviews differ? </p>

<p>Also, he has had to write 3 essays so far at the initial interview days. He doesn't know if these essays should be written like the one he wrote for the common application- with some kind of "hook" to draw the reader in, etc. One question he had to write on was if pre-med majors should be screened for drugs/alcohol. How can you get creative with that one? </p>

<p>Any advice would be appreciated. He needs to win some scholarship in order to attend his #1 school.</p>

<p>If you are comfortable naming the college, there may be people here with experience with that particular school’s scholarship days. Otherwise, i think each college has its own approach to these. My son only went on one and the interview was very friendly and conversational, although long and in depth. It didn’t feel like a quiz or a lot of gotcha questions - just really trying to see what he was interested in, what he knew about it, and what his opinions and motivations were. He didn’t have to write an essay while there.</p>

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<p>I don’t think he needs to be creative as much as thoughtful and perceptive. I guess if I were to offer any advice, it would be to stop trying to guess what the committee is looking for, or to sound like a kid trying to sound creative and interesting. Instead, he should think about the question and really have an opinion that he can talk about. I would guess that being invited shows the school thinks he’s a bright kid with a high chance of success - now they’re trying to dig a little deeper and find out what he thinks, how he thinks, how he makes decisions, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck to him!</p>

<p>I don’t have any experience with this, but just wanted to say congrats to your son and good luck!!!</p>