easypeasy Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) DD has a competitive scholarship interview coming up. She's passed the first couple of rounds and is now approaching the final one, which includes two days on-campus. They are flying her (and I) out and will have two days of "activities and interviews." I'm wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom or personal experience with this sort of thing? DD1 was almost to this point for a similar scholarship interview at a different university, but opted to go to another school beforehand, so she withdrew her name. Now I'm wishing she'd have gone just for fun and experience! 🤣 For instance, the letter insinuates long days. We are guessing there will be individual/personal interviews, group interviews... and that everything in-between is basically a test. lol There is a big dinner as well where, again, she's being tested. 😂 But - what about sleep? Like.... if they are officially "Finished' with the assigned activities, but some of the current students of this program are going to hang out together with the applicants... should she go? Or get some sleep? lol Sleep is important to this kid, but she isn't sure what the best thing to do would be... hang out and risk not being as sharp the next day, or possibly appear anti-social and get some shut-eye? She's currently hoping there's another early-to-bed amongst the candidates and if she can just outlast that one person, she'll be free to make a run for it! lol (it's like running from zombies! lol) (eta: she'll be staying on campus) And what about me? It sounds like (she doesn't have a true schedule yet) there are parent-involved events and QAs, etc while we are there. I am not sure, but parents might be at the dinner as well. Am I being judged too? Do I need to break out the heels and earrings and practice the chitchat (my least-favorite thing in the world)? Her people skills are stellar, she'll be "herself" easily, and she's actually got a real shot at winning this thing... but we are afraid we're missing some obvious competitive component that will stump her at some unfortunate moment. lol What should she be aware of that we aren't thinking of? Read our minds!! 😀 Edited February 3, 2020 by easypeasy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I have no experience with this, but have you looked for threads about it on the College Confidential website? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easypeasy Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 32 minutes ago, klmama said: I have no experience with this, but have you looked for threads about it on the College Confidential website? Not yet. CC overwhelms me. 😵 I'll give it a whirl right now, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 My kids have gone on several of these. Some had parents there, but not directly involved at all in the weekend. The parent activities were separate, more just informal informational, with some food/wine socials (which I skipped b/c I hate chit-chat). At others, parents were at the dinner with their student and seated with university representatives. (Yes, I found those intimidating and decided saying less is more after listening to other parents gush too much. 😉 ) I told my kids to just be themselves bc being themselves had gotten them that far. It was during one of those scenarios where the kids were asked their favorite downtime activity. The other kids all said things like soccer, drama, etc and dd said curl up with a cup of hot tea and a good book. 🙂 (She got the U's highest scholarship offer, so it obviously didn't hurt her!) In terms of the night time student socials, ds is an extreme extrovert and went and hung out for a long time. Dd is an extreme introvert and needs down time and sleep. She opted for a balanced approach. She forced herself to go and socialize for about an hr and then slipped out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 My daughter did some of those, including one pretty elaborate one at Georgia Tech that specified various levels of dress for different events. I do think it's fairly important for the candidate to be "on" for the entirety of the event. That may not mean late night hangouts though. If leadership is a criteria, there is likely some observation of how the person interacts with the group. My daughter is not naturally one for small talk, so we discussed potential conversational ice breakers for both other candidates and professors/evaluators. All in all, these sorts of experiences were really educational and good for personal development. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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