<p>Hey everyone, I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts on here over the past few months as I prepared for my application. I’m a 5DL candidate and just finished my final interview on the 28th of March. So as others have, I’ll also go ahead and post some details about myself and give you folks (and more importantly those who will be applying for 2013) an overview of what it was like for me. (WARNING, it’s a bit lengthy)</p>
<p>Quick demographic on myself:
-Male
-High school dropout
-Spent 8 years active duty in the US Navy (reaching the rank of E-6)
-Bachelors in Psychology/Minor in Sociology (concurrent with military service) from the University of South Carolina Beaufort in 2010</p>
<p>My thoughts on…the Application Process:
-Holy McLovin they ask for an insane amount of information!
-Had to explain why I got thrown in jail, among other things
-Knowing how competitive the program is, I did not expect to move forward to the next stage in the process!</p>
<p>My thoughts on…the Phone Interview:
-Did not expect to make it to this point, but somehow I did
-My phone interview went HORRIBLYLOUSY!
-It was, for some reason, a bunch of conflict resolution type questions
-Based off of phone interview, I fully, wholeheartedly expected to NOT make it to the final interview</p>
<p>My thoughts on…the Final Interview Lesson:
-I somehow made it to the final round. MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!
-I went ahead and taught my lesson first to get it over with (and also to break the ice). It was a good idea…
-However, teaching math as your 5-minute lesson…not sooo much
-There were some pretty impressive presenters. There were also some that were not. Felt I fell in the middle.</p>
<p>My thoughts on…the Final Interview Group Activity:
-Broke group up into two smaller groups, but honestly, I have no idea what the interviewers were observing/looking for…</p>
<p>My thoughts on…the Final Interview (1:1):
-Me and my interviewer had pretty good rapport and good back-and-forth. The whole thing was pretty laid-back and easy-going.
-There was a brief role-playing scenario. Could’ve gone better…but wasn’t too bad.
-Only questions I got asked were 3-4 “must-ask” (as the interviewer stated it) questions…and that was it. Did not get asked anything about my resume, my responses, strengths or weakness…no standard interview questions at all…nothing of the sort. I honestly have no idea if that was a good or bad sign. Anyone have any thoughts?
-Since I was the last interview of the day, my session ran a little longer than the others (a little over an hour to be exact)
-Found out from the interviewer about their scoring process (more after the jump)</p>
<p>My Closing Thoughts:
-So apparently they have a scoring rubric. Don’t know if it’s just for the final interview day, or if it’s a culmination of the entire process from the beginning (I assume it’s the latter). I say this because I think my letter of intent and online activity are what got me to the final round. But apparently, once you reach a certain score, you are “recommended”. That’s all I could manage to get out of my interviewer. But apparently the process is still holistic…
-I did not apply for TF. Reason being is that if I get accepted (God-willing / #miracles dohappen), I can apply up until May 1 (I’m pretty sure that holds true for all DL’s). More importantly though, I didn’t want to drive myself crazy constantly checking on whether my TF status changed or not. I let myself retain the remaining sanity I had left after having gone through this whole thing.
-Do I think I made it? I honestly have no ####ing idea. People keep asking me how I think I did, and I keep telling them that I’ll let 'em know on the 12th of April. Expecting the worst…hoping for the best.
-And also, YOU are a trooper if you made it all the way down to this line!</p>
<p>Aside from all this, if I can answer anybody’s questions (based on my experiences), please feel free to reach out me =)</p>