Sorry for any grammatical error. I am replying on a phone
Nice. Any tips on negotiating scholarships? Did you call or email them during negotiating?
I initially emailed and the majority was over email but they occasionally called me.
In general try not to sound demanding. Just let them know you have scholarship offers at other schools and are wondering if there is any opportunities for your scholarship offer to be increased because they are a top choice but finances are holding you back. Also let them know why you liked their program so they know you are serious.
So I’m gonna ask the obvious question
11/12 interviews?!?! Do you just attribute this to a bit of random luck, or do you have something unique that makes you stand out? Since you interviewed at 5 and were accepted at 5 I would imagine you have some sort of personality trait/accomplishment that really stands out...
I think there was some luck because I was surprised with some interview offers. But I knew my stats were good enough to get my application looked that so I spent a lot of time on my personal statement, supplemental application, and also a lot of time with my experiences section. I made sure my personal statement and experiences connected and had a theme. Rather than having a bunch of random stuff on my application to pile it. Quality > Quantity.
Pardon me but your stats scream average.. What factor do you think contributed to the 100% acceptance everywhere you interviewed at?? Hoping to get a few interviews this cycle and would love to get a few pointers from your perspective.
haha that's a first..I mean they do look average if you are looking at SDN. Oddly enough at my interviews people liked mentioning their stats lol so there were some people with higher and some people with lower stats than me at my interviews. Once you get an interview you have done half the work. The other half is nailing your interview. Initially spent a lot of time practicing before my first interview but after my first interview I realized that I was giving answers that I thought they wanted so it wasn't as enjoyable. For the rest of my interviews, I only brushed up on the top 5 basic questions but otherwise the goal for me for each interview was to just relax and be myself. I know a lot of people just say "be yourself" and it starts to sound old but I saw a huge difference between my first and second interview when I just relaxed. A lot of other students would ask me after the interview "how did you answer this question" "what's your strategy with this question" which showed me a majority of students just try and give an answer that they think is right when most questions there is no wrong or right answer. If you get an interview at Michigan that one you absolutely have to be relaxed as it is an MMI. There are 10 interviews and I pretty much failed the first interviewer but I had to relax because you have 9 other people you can score points on. Some students got very nervous after they messed up one and messed up the rest.
Also a lot of times I tried to stir my interviews the way I want. I use whatever first questions they ask me (Usually "tell me about yourself?" or "Tell me more about x in your app") to direct the interview how I want. I usually answer the question but add in some stuff and steer them in the path i want. Like answer a question and leave in a cliff hanger and 90% of the time they will want to know more about it. Because honestly if you let the interview ask you questions 1-10, that is super boring and they will write generic stuff about you. They get enough students that just answer each question they ask like robots and move on to the next. If people aren't being personable, the interviewer will write generic notes and those can only get you on the waitlist at most
Which schools offered scholarships?
Colorado, UCSF, Michigan,
