So, this one is about my Fulbright Interview experience.
Please ignore the grammatical mistakes and typing errors. It was a long document
and I didn’t have time to read what I wrote.
PRE_INTERVIEW TASKS:
My interview was on 23rd, and I got a call a week
before the interview. Also in the email there are one or two forms that you
need to fill and send back to them ASAP (usually they expect the response
within 24 hours). Also you would need to register for TOEFL as early as you get
the call because the seats will fill up quite quickly before you expect. TRUST
ME, register yourself ASAP after you get the interview call. Your TOEFL
registration date MUST be within two weeks after your INTERVIEW DATE. So you get
like two weeks to prepare for your TOEFL exam which is more than enough in my
opinion if you follow the right resources.
PREPARATION:
Make sure you are well prepared about some basic questions.
Well prepared means you have a short and complete sentence in your mind about
that question.
TIP: They don’t like long answers. Be short and precise.
The questions you should consider can be:
1.
Introduce yourself
2.
What is your major field of study?
3.
Why you chose his field?
4.
Why do you want higher education?
5.
What will you do after your degree?
6.
Why USA?
7.
Why Fulbright?
8.
Why these specific universities? (if you have
mentioned preferences in your application)
9.
How will your PhD or MS contribute for Pakistan?
10.
Do you know about US culture?
11.
What difficulties are you expecting to
encounter?
12.
Can you adjust there?
13.
Do you have any publication?
14.
What it is about?
15.
What results you deduced from your (they will
pick up any from your CV) research?
16.
How much experience do you have?
17.
What was your job at (any xyz from your CV)?
Don’t worry you won’t be asked this much. It is just the
common questions that you might encounter and then you should go through all
the documents you submitted which includes but is not limited to
1.
Your Fulbright application as whole
2.
Your essays in particular
3.
Your CV
4.
Your publications
5.
Your work experience
6.
Your ongoing research (if any)
It is better to try and answer these questions to a friend or
sibling, this will increase your confidence.
You will have to answer all questions in ENGLISH, so be
prepared for that.
Last but not the least make sure you have a GOOD SLEEP
before your interview day. Especially for those who will be travelling to Islamabad.
INTERVIEW DAY:
ARRIVAL AT USEFP:
At my time I didn’t knew that interviews happen in batches
so I thought I should reach half hour earlier than my reporting time, but you
should not that. If your reporting time is 12, make sure you reach around 12
and not earlier as you still will have to wait for an hour before the process
starts. You can also reach with in half hour of your reporting time.
First you will go through security checking and you will
switch off your mobile phones and submit them at the counter to take the
visitor’s card. Then you will sit there till your reporting time (girls wait
inside whereas boys have to sit outside, so do not try to reach too early).
After that you will be asked to place your bags in the locker and you can only
take your academic documents and your locker keys with you.
INTERVIEW ROOM:
You will not go to the room where you gave your GRE test,
there a second building beside that. You will enter that building and again
wait for some time. There were 20 aspirants in each interview batch last year.
When all aspirants will be in the room you will be given some paperwork to do.
One will have some general questions about some community work, and if you have
relatives in the US or not. Please make sure to answer it similar to the one you
did in your application.
Also you will be given an essay to write and I think 15 minutes.
The purpose of this essay is not to judge your knowledge but to match your
writing style. My batch was given the topic:
“What was the biggest social movement of the last century?”
So it can be any current affairs of Pakistan studies related
topic. Just think for a couple of minutes and then start writing whatever comes
to your mind.
SOCIALIZE AND CONNECT:
You will have a plenty of time there to talk to each other.
Do that, it will relieve you and you will not feel tensed. Connect with all
other students, take their contact numbers, add them to the whatsapp group or
you can make your own group for those people who received interview calls.
INTERVIEW BEGINS:
You will see American panelists entering the room. There
will be two panels going on simultaneously, so each panel interviews 10 people.
Make sure you don’t have any other plans after your interview as you will be
spending a good 4 hours in USEFP atleast. Especially for those whose turn will
come late. A name and that person will have to sit separately on a chair that
is away from the main table and near to the interview rooms. Then that person
will be called inside. On the panel there were 4 people, 2 from Pakistan and 2
from US.
MY INTERVIEW PANEL:
My interview panel consisted of two female Pakistani
panelists and two male US panelists. None of whom understood my field.
TIP: do not use technical terms specific to your field in
your answers. Try to be more general and use lay man terms. Try to show the benefit
of your work rather than going deep into the technicalities.
When I was told to sit in that chair, yes panic started to
hit me. But just cool your nerves and say everything is going to be alright. When
I entered the room there was a person sitting separately behind my chair and 4
people (as described earlier) were sitting in front of me. They all introduced
themselves and one of said that I am going to set the timer for 15 minutes
because that’s how long will be the interview and he started the clock.
Q: Introduce yourself. A: I deviated from the norms by not
saying that my name is blab la and I am doing my MS from xyz etc., instead I
said that all the academic information about me is within your hands so I will introduce
myself as a responsible daughter, a caring sister and a sincere friend.
I might not remember the order of the questions but I will
share which questions I remembered.
Q: Why Fulbright? A: This was the first opportunity that
came and secondly US was pioneer in my field of research, so that is why.
NOTE: My answers here could be different from what I
actually said there, but the essence is the same. Wordings might have been
different.
Q: what is your field? A: I described my field and then
explained in lay man terms about its advantages as they had no idea about my
field.
Then there was a question about my experience from my
application.
Q: Why do you want to do PhD?
Q: What would you do after degree completion?
Q: How will your PhD help Pakistan? A: I focused my answer
on the gap filling between academia and industry.
Then there were a few questions about my publication which
was related to my BS project.
Q: How much do you know about American culture?
Q: Well then how will you adjust there? A: I supported my answer
by sharing my MS experience of getting along people from all the provinces.
And I think this was it. Then the timer rang. These 15
minutes passed by real quick. To pass the time sitting outside is very
difficult.
MY VIEWS:
I thought at that time that I could have done better. I was
not satisfied by my interview at all. People who came out before me has smiling
faces and they seemed very satisfied. However none of those candidates received
the letter and Alhamdulillah I did and that too as a Principal Candidate. So I
have not yet understood their criterion of selection so I will advise to answer
everything correctly. If you don’t know a thing or you don’t have any quality,
just admit that. They want a candidate who is willing to learn, not the one who
already knows everything.
Lastly, by actually living here I have learned that they
highly support those people who accept their flaws, who know their area of improvement
because we all are human beings and we all do mistakes. It takes a huge amount
of courage to accept where you are wrong and they highly support that.
I hope I have covered everything. If you have any questions
ask in the comments section but please don’t ask questions like “I have xyz
profile so what are the chances if selection” I cannot answer that.
Best of luck for your interview, and I am not offering mock
interview because I am unsure about the selection criterion but if you need to
discuss something I am there to help. But I may not respond as quickly as I
used to do before, so have a little patience. J
