Scholarship Interviews

Parents Forum
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Perhaps, but if he’s only up against a handful of other kids, chances are that they also will have NM Commended. If you think about it, NM Commended just means the kid tested exceptionally well - like top 3.3%. These kids are fantastic test takers, and generally that correlates with them being awesome students. I understand that NM scholars are something like top 1.1%. Typically these full-ride scholarships requiring an interview will go to top 0.5% kids.

If he’s up against a couple dozen kids for maybe 4-5 scholarships, then perhaps not all of them will have NM Commended.

I do not mean to diminish his accomplishments in any way. Just trying to put it in perspective. This is perhaps similar to the US Presidential Scholar process (around 5100 nominees in the country) which only 151 win, including a male and female from each state, means the competition is at such a high level it can be mind boggling. As a parent, you really want to remain hopeful/optimistic, because you never know, even as you understand how slim the chances really are.

I am mentally sending positive thoughts to you and your son!

22

I wish him a lot of luck in his interview. I asked my daughter if she ever interviewed any students who were shy or introverted and she said yes. They could tell and didn’t push things, well except for one. The girl wanted to major in XX, say pre-med, so to get her to a bit more, the prof asked her why she wanted to major in that. It should be easy for anyone to say why they picked their major. Nope. She didn’t know why. She not only didn’t get the scholarship but they also didn’t recommend her for the honors program. Dd laughs about the chatting one who contradicted herself. No scholarship for her either. He shouldn’t be discouraged if he doesn’t get it since his aid package may very well equal or be very close to the scholarship, just missing the title.

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Hi @“Garden Mom”,

A number of my students are interviewing for scholarships right now. I do several things with them.

One, I do mock interviews. I write up a list of questions, and while we Skype (many of my students are out of the area), I “interview” my student, writing down all the responses. After we’re done, we talk about how it went, how it felt, and I offer encouraging and useful feedback. The student also has his/her notes to look at, and this helps with seeing if there’s a need to improve, change or add information or presentation.

Two, if the students need a specific one page resume for the scholarship competition, we again work together to prioritize activities, design the resume, and emphasize what’s most important to the scholarship committee.

I have found without question that my introverted students who practiced the interview before hand felt more confident and gave a good report about the interview.

I remember my own introverted son had to go to an interview with 10, yes 10, people on the interview panel at CSU Fullerton. Talk about intimidating. But he did a fantastic job of it, all things considered. So proud of him for going completely out of his comfort zone.

Oh, one last thing- if possible, find someone who’s a current scholarship recipient and ask him/her about the interview. Your child might get some good information that way, as well.

Keep us posted!

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@3puppies , @sbjdorlo , and @GloriaVaughn
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I think you may be my new best friends. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your encouragement and concern. All of your suggestions are good ones. I think I may contact his gifted teacher or counselor and see if one of them would be willing to help prep him for the interview. I had someone else in mind but they are not available until after he’s already interviewed.

25

This is a follow up to the original post about his interview and the results.

There were a lot of students there and they were all deserving. My son’s interview was the first day and he felt like it went well. He felt confident and surprisingly not too nervous. He had prepared a bound booklet to leave with them at the end that contained his resume, personal statement, an example of his work, and a few other items. I think he was as prepared as he could be. Having said all that, the weekend visit was enlightening in a way that it hadn’t been before.

First, there is apparently a lot going on at the university concerning it’s restructuring of departments and number of colleges and I had read about that earlier. However, there seems to be an undercurrent running throughout the faculty and it’s not all pretty. As an example, when I asked one of the deans about retention and grad rates for his program, he answered while taking a swipe at the Chancellor’s speech from the night before. When I asked another dean from another area, his response was somewhat different but not in a good way either.

Second, and this may sound petty, but while my son and husband were checking out another area, I stopped by the Honors College and spoke to the director. She seemed pretty sure that he had not yet applied but would check on it the following Monday to be sure and asked me to write down hsi name and email address. I was pretty certain that he had but just assumed I was remembering wrong on that one. The following week she sent him an email inviting him to apply to which he forwarded her the original acceptance email back to her and thanking her for following up. I called later that day and someone else checked the files and found his application. However, he never received a welcome package/letter as promised, only an email in November, and no further communications after that…

Third, 2 days ago, he received an email from the College of Communications welcoming him. He’s an Engineering major. Last week, he received an email form the dean of the Psychology Dept. He’s still an Engineering Major.

Finally, there seems to be more brewing in local news regarding the chancellor. As I said, it’s not pretty but in many ways seems really silly in a lot of ways. My main concern being that unhappy faculty may bleed over to unhappy students and may interfere with their education. If our son was just starting high school none of this might matter by the time he was a senior but it feels like it matters a lot at this point. .

After his weekend, I asked him how he would rank this school compared to the others he’s considering and he gave it a 9… with the caveat “but if I don’t get the scholarship it will go down”. Well, he finally heard about 10 days ago and he did not receive the full ride although they did upgrade his scholarship to a more generous one. As terrible as this may sound, I think I’m somewhat relieved that he didn’t get it. When I compare his experience at other schools, this one just seems a whole lot more difficult to get right. Of course, it will be his decision ultimately and he is still thinking about it. Having said that, he’ll be back at 2 other schools for an admitted students day in 2 weeks and I’m hoping that seals the deal for him. .