How to write a winning scholarship essay - Gen Tanabe, Kelly Tanabe 2018

What common mistakes do students make in interviews?
Judges’ Roundtable: the Interview

Scholarship interviews are one place where it may seem like there’s nowhere to hide and every misspoken word is magnified. In most cases, you are probably your harshest critic, noticing your errors more than the interviewers. But we found that there are some mistakes that judges notice more than others. Fortunately, these mistakes are all avoidable.

Russ Hobbs

Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship Program “Not doing your homework on our organization is an easy mistake to avoid. We had one applicant who attended an Ivy League college and flew across the country for his interview.

When the selection committee asked him what he knew about Rotary he didn’t have a clue. He relied completely on the fact that he was an Ivy League graduate. It was like applying for a job at IBM without knowing what IBM does. This applicant figured all he had to do was show up and sign for the check.”

Leah Carroll

U.C. Berkeley Haas Scholars Program

“When we advise Berkeley students who are about to go into a difficult interview we remind them that they have to see this as intellectual sparring. You need to be prepared for an interviewer to challenge your ideas. You need to be able to defend your views and even poke back. We tell our students to go in with the attitude that it’s challenging but also fun. We have found that a lot of judges are most impressed when students are willing to defend who they are and feel good about their beliefs. Not being ready to do this or not practicing for this kind of interview is a huge mistake.”