<p>Does anyone know how the interviews for WashU's scholarships work? I'm specifically wondering about the Arts and Sciences scholarships. (If anyone wants to discuss the other scholarships, feel free to.)</p>
<p>Here's a description on their website:</p>
<p>"A faculty committee will conduct personal interviews with the finalists for the Compton, Mylonas, Moog, and Lien scholarships. To remain eligible for the scholarships, finalists will need to come to Washington University March 29 - April 1, 2007 for the interview and related activities. The University will pay all expenses for the finalists during these four days."</p>
<p>So I have a couple questions. How many people do they invite to be interviewed? How much do they narrow down from that group? In other words, once you've been selected as a "finalist" to be interviewed, how confident can you be that you will be selected for the scholarship? Surely the people they select to be interviewed are pretty much the ones that'll get the scholarship (no more are invited, pretty much)? I can't imagine a bunch of kids being invited to do interviews, interacting with each other for a few days, knowing full well that only a few of them will actually get the scholarships---I'd think that'd be too cruel and stressful. But then again, it might even be more cruel if they eliminate just one or two people, and the rest are selected; in that case, it'd be better to reject the majority, as then it wouldn't be embarrassing.</p>
<p>Also, are the interviews pretty much just normal interviews, or are they a bit different? (I'm thinking they'd be a bit more intellectual-oriented, just like the application was. Especially since it's faculty that's doing the interviewing.)</p>
<p>If anyone somehow knows the answers to these questions, I'd be glad to know. Thanks.</p>
<p>The interviews are much more intellectual than your regular "tell me about your ECs" type of shindig. Be ready to discuss the essays in your application pretty in-depth, especially if you're interviewing for the humanties. You'll also potentially have to solve a few math/science problems (thought process is key here, not your final answer) or interpret some data. There will probably be thirty-something people interviewed, almost all of whom will receive at least half tuition. I think around a dozen people will get full tuition.</p>
<p>melanieeek, thanks, that's exactly the info I was looking for. (And congrats on being a Mylonas! That's awesome.)</p>
<p>I must say, it seems a little weird to me that they'd have us actually <em>do</em> something (like solve problems and such) for the interview. But then, I guess that's the only way they'd be able to pick. Are you saying the people for different scholarships did somewhat different things (I'm assuming that you, for example, weren't asked to solve math problems)? Do you remember what sort of thing the social science people did? I'm applying for the Lien, BTW.</p>
<p>And since I'm a Lien applicant, if I'm selected for the interview, can I expect to be interviewed by any social scientist, or specifically an economist (my intended major)? Or could I even be interviewed by a random biochemist or something? (This is a pretty relevant question in my case, since economists are, well, rather different from other social scientists. ;))</p>
<p>melanieeek, you said that about 30 people come to interview, do you mean in total for all the Arts & Science scholarships? Also, do you have a sense for how big the total pool of scholarship applications is?</p>
<p>Aight: Yeah, each different scholarship gets its own set of questions or objectives or whatever in the interview. I didn't do any math problems, but I did have to loosely address the philosophical implications of one of my essays. I think that last year the Liens had to analyze some sort of data pool or maybe a graph of something... it's nothing you won't be ready for. As a Lien, you'll be interviewed by faculty from the social sciences exclusively, but not solely from the econ department. I know they had at least one poli sci teacher on the panel last year, for example. That said, many of the Liens are very econ-focused this year, and since WashU's econ department is full of top-notch faculty members, you can probably expect to have a few of them involved in the scholarship process.</p>
<p>nervous: Between thirty and forty applicants total will be finalists for the Honorary Scholarships. That is, for all four categories combined. The other A&S scholarships like the Danforth, Ervin, Rodriguez, Nemerov, etc, have their own separate finalist pools of varying sizes. Last year, the applicant pool for the Honorary Scholarships was about 1500 people, I think.</p>
<p>Chet: Last year, finalists got an email on February 21st, but a phone call preceded the email by a day or two.</p>
<p>Who actually reviews the scholarship applications. The booklet says that the scholarship committee is different from the admissions committee, but is the scholarship committee made up of faculty or are they admininstrative staff?</p>
<p>Mainly (if not completely) faculty, and only faculty conduct the interviews, although there are a few administrators who oversee the process, I'd assume.</p>
<p>I understand that faculty does the interviewing, but who sifts through the 1500 applications to narrow them down to 30-40? Is that done by faculty or administrators?</p>
<p>I'm not sure how many rounds of narrowing down are done, but I know that essays are all read and reviewed by the same faculty panel that does interviews. As to whether this happens at the very first stage (I'd assume not) or towards the end, I'm not sure.</p>
<p>My son has applied for the Danforth (nominated by his school), the Rodrigues annd Irvwin. When is the notification? What should he expect? We were somewhat hesitant about the IrWin since he is not Afro-American/</p>
<p>melanieeek: Okay, that makes sense. One minor thing, though: "...many of the Liens are very econ-focused this year..." Really? How exactly do you know?</p>
<p>D is a Lien from 2004 (so the year before Melanie). She had two interviews, both with panels of social scientists. She was asked how she would set up a study to solve a social - cultural research problem. I got the impression the right answer wasn't as important as the thinking out loud and the process of approaching the problem. In addition to social events you also get to overnight with a 'CMML' who can fill you in on the campus life. The three days are full of things to do.</p>
<p>i applied to six scholarships. i'm wondering can i be a finalist for more than one? also, are the notification dates different for the scholarships?</p>
<p>I believe the interview dates as well as the notification dates are different for each scholarship (as I have noticed from last year's posts) But I would also like to know if someone can be a finalist for multiple scholarships.</p>