Misinterpreting the judges - Real interview questions & answers

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

Misinterpreting the judges
Real interview questions & answers

Silver Knight Scholarship Winner

It’s tempting to try to read the judges during the scholarship interview. You might think that the longer the interview or the more involved the selection committee gets, the better your performance. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to accurately interpret the thoughts of others. When she interviewed for the Silver Knight scholarship, Elisa Tatiana Juárez was scared. After all, the Silver Knight award is a highly competitive program and is given to only 14 of the top students in Miami-Dade County.

Elisa had been on the other side of the interview table before as an interviewer so she thought she had a good sense of how judges react when they are really interested in a candidate.

“I thought that you could tell what the judges think of you by their responses,” she says.

In the interview, Elisa described the STARS (Students and Teachers Advocating Research Science) program that she started at the Miami Museum of Science to provide opportunities for minority and economically disadvantaged students in the sciences. During her interview, she was disappointed that the judges seemed too enthusiastic about her work to the point that she thought they were faking their level of interest.

“In my interview, they were too encouraging,” she says. “My image was they thought, `Good luck, but try again next year.’”

Thankfully, her interpretation of their reactions was completely opposite from reality and she won the award.

Q: who is a role model for you?

a: Oprah Winfrey. I admire Oprah not because of her wealth but because through sheer determination and hard work she has built one of the largest media companies in the country. I am inspired by people like Oprah who didn’t inherit wealth or fame but who built it on their own by setting goals and working hard to achieve them. She is also motivating because she has chosen to do what she wanted, not necessarily what was seen as the most popular thing to do. For example, instead of making her talk show about sex and violence, she’s taken a different route to make it about the positive things in life. I also want to live my life by what I think is right, even if that is at odds with what the majority feel I should do.

a: My father is my role model. He has taught me to endure difficult times with resolve. I always knew that my father didn’t make a lot of money at his job and that our family’s finances were stretched. But I only recently learned how stretched our finances were. There were points where my parents weren’t sure how they were going to pay the bills.

But looking at my father, you would never detect the stress that he was under. He always made sure that we kids had everything that we needed. We didn’t have the brightest or newest things, but we were always cared for. I remember one Christmas when I was 12. My friends received the newest “in” toys for Christmas while I received a wooden car and airplane that my father had made. I still have those toys and plan to give them to my kids someday. That is what I admire about my father and hope that in the face of adversity I too can be as calm and innovative as he is.

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When judges ask this question, their intent is to learn something about you through your choice of whom you admire. If you just say that your role model is golfing superstar Tiger Woods but offer no explanation why, you aren’t sharing much about yourself. The judges won’t know if Tiger is your role model because he’s a good golfer, a Stanford graduate or something else. Both of these answers give specific reasons why the applicants idolize these people, and both support their choice with concrete and memorable examples. No matter whom you choose as a hero, be sure to know enough about him or her to explain what specific quality you want to emulate. Also, know their shortcomings since you may be asked about that as a follow-up question.

Q: what is your favorite book?

a: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. When we first were assigned this book to read, it was pretty daunting. But as I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. I became consumed with the characters, feeling their emotions. The book took me through the low points of Jean Valjean’s arrests and the high point of his final release. Throughout, the book made me think about the line between right and wrong and whether or not someone who was wrong in the past could make up for his or her mistakes to experience true freedom. It really made me think about the ethics I live by and about the mistakes I’ve made in the past. It also inspired me to be more forgiving of people with whom I’ve had disagreements.

a: The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop. This book chronicles the last 24 hours of Lincoln’s life from the perspective of the assassins and the government officials who were the target of the assassination plot. I normally don’t get drawn into history books, but this one was an exception because the detail allowed me to imagine everything that was happening and I felt like I was actually there. After reading the book, I took a drive to Washington, D.C., to see the Ford Theater and the boarding house where Lincoln died. I could almost see Booth approaching the President from behind and the doctors working on the President in vain. This book brought history alive for me, and I have a whole new interest in the American presidency.

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Neither of these answers are book reports—which is good since the judges are not asking for a summary of the book. What the judges want to learn is who you are through your selection of a book and why you say reading the book is important. Both of these answers show how the book affected the reader. When thinking about which book to choose, ask yourself if your selection made you think differently or compelled you to take action. Ask yourself what specifically made you relate to a character. Also, don’t feel that you have to select a classic.

It’s fine to say that your favorite book is Charlotte’s Web or Green Eggs and Ham. What’s important is not your selection of the book but why it is meaningful to you.