<p>I was a trustee scholar and interviewed candidates for scholarships for 3 years. You don’t need to bring any supplemental information- the interviewers will have your applications in front of you. Here are my main suggestions:
- Review your application before going to the interview. Know what you put down for the quick takes, and remember what your essays were about. Often, interviewers like to ask questions about what they see on the application. I would get the applications for who I was interviewing a day or two in advanced and go through and highlight the interesting parts.<br>
- Read a newspaper for a few days before the interview. Sometimes there will be questions about current events, and it is good if you know something that you can talk about.
- Be passionate. My favorite students were the ones who obviously really loved and cared about what they did. Even if they weren’t the most socially developed people, they would come alive when talking about their passions. Then I knew that I liked them.<br>
- One of the questions used to evaluate students is “Would you like this student in one of your classes (as a fellow student or as a professor).” You want to prove that you would have something interesting to say, and would participate well in a discussion.
- Know things about USC. If you are on these boards, that’s probably not much of an issue. However, it is really a good thing to know about what programs and extra curricular activities interest you before the interview. The interviewers are trying to figure out if you would really go to USC if you got the scholarship. We don’t want to give scholarships to people who are never going to enroll.</p>
<p>If you have any questions, I’ll try to keep up with this thread and respond.</p>