Scholarship Interview Tips
Getting a scholarship can help you to pay for college, making a big difference in the college that you ultimately choose to go to. There are several interview procedures for different fields. There is a drastic difference in interview for the job as well as interview for the scholarship.
Scholarship interviews are where candidate needs to please the interviewer. Apart from the academic excellence in scholarship interviews, officials want to analyze the vision of the candidate, his future prospects, and his academic plans.
A scholarship is a place to highlight your knowledge. It can only be accomplished with loads of confidence. Scholarship interviews are known for their tough competition; still it is easy to crack them. Preparation and rehearsing for the interview speech will help you in moving towards the target.
Many students who are asked to interview for a scholarship may not have had any formal interview experience. Therefore, it is important to learn exactly how to succeed in a scholarship interview.
Guidelines for Scholarship interview:
1. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to get to the interview and account for traffic. Plan to be there at least 15 minutes before your scheduled time.
2. Take all support documents that shows your academic record as well as your academic achievements.
3. You should know the mission of the organization that is granting the scholarship. This allows you to determine what they might value in a candidate. Learn as much as you can about the provider before you interview. It is also good to find out who previous recipients of the award are.
4. Determine what qualities you possess that make you qualified to receive the scholarship. Learn the requirements of the scholarship and be prepared to match your qualities with the requirements.
5. The interviewer wants to know why you deserve the scholarship, and you should be able to tell him in detail. Review the details for the scholarship and plan to speak about the ways that your abilities and experience fits in with what they are looking for.
6. It is impossible to predict exactly which questions you may be asked in a scholarship interview, but it is possible to prepare yourself by working out answers to some of the more common questions that get asked in interviews, whether for scholarships or employment. A significant percentage of questions will be based on information and ideas presented in your application. You should be prepared to answer questions about your academic history and achievements.
7. Taking part in a mock interview can be very beneficial on the day of the interview, because practicing answers out loud to another person is much different than reciting an answer in your head.
8. Be sure to dress professionally. Even though this interview is not for a job, you still want to make a good impression.
9. The body language is another important aspect of the scholarship interview. It is advisable to have a glass of water before entering the interview room. Inhale a breath in an accurate way. This will help in your rate of speech so that you will sound clear in your words.
10. It is advisable that instead of giving quick repartee, candidate needs to answer the question after a small pause. This will help the candidate to understand the question in a better way and you would be able to give the answer that interviewer is looking for.
11. Most of the time it also happens that interviewer is very keen to analyze your knowledge of current affairs. It might be possible that interviewer discuss something, which is out of your conventional topic that you have prepared.
12. Candidate must be calm if any complicated question has been asked. If you are not sound about any particular topic then do not divulge any knowledge about that topic as you might end up explaining the wrong thing.