There is a great rundown of the President’s Scholars (PS) Program in a thread from 2011: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/southern-methodist-university/1188242-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-president%C2%92s-scholar-program-p1.html
SMU, to a large degree, and the PS program, to a lesser degree, have undergone dynamic and transformative changes since then. I am a senior PS, and I would be happy to field any questions anyone has about the PS program and other tangentially related areas.
How in-depth are the interview questions regarding the topics and the books?
I would say there is a great degree of variance when it comes to interviews. Each panel typically consists of two SMU faculty, a PS alumni, and a current PS student. While you should certainly be up to speed on the books and the topics you selected, make sure that it goes beyond summary–be able to address economic, ethical, political, philosophical, etc., ramifications. The books and topics are often a starting point for conversation–an ice breaker if you will. Sometimes the conversation will lead to interesting places and become the focus of the interview; sometimes the interview won’t even touch on the books and topics.
I wish I saw this before. I felt unprepared on the ramifications of my topics and felt like I contradicted myself a lot and that the interview went badly. How much importance is given to the interview? @carpenoctem93