Hey there! If you have read my previous posts, then you'd know that I am in fact a high school graduate of 2014, which means I've been pretty busy applying for scholarships, universities and what not. So in the past 4 months, I have attended 4 different interviews and in this post I'm going to explain to you what had I encountered during these interviews. I'm doing this fairly because I want to have a record of what I went through for my own sake, but also I hope to be able to give an insight to those who will be attending similar interviews in the future. I've been wanting to post something like this for a while, and I feel like now is the right time to do so :)
For this particular post, I'll be focusing on the Taylor's World Class Scholarship first interview. I'll link the other 3 interviews at the end of this post.
Taylor's World Class Scholarship - 17th March 2015
I remember being extremely shocked when I found out that I was selected to attend the interview, and that it took me so long to actually decided whether or not to attend the interview. My mother wasn't really into it, but my brother was pushing me to attend it, so I did, just to see what it will be like. The interview was scheduled to start at 9.30am and end at 1.00pm , but obviously nothing turned out as planned. My dad was the one who sent me to the venue, which was Taylor's Lakeside Campus near Sunway Pyramid. I was on time (luckily), and I managed to befriend a few girls, Aimi and Iman while I was touching up my face in the washroom. After that, we were ushered to the Grand Hall for registration. I realised that out of all the courses offered, architecture had the least amount of interviewees and I think that boosted my confidence by a tiny fraction. Then, we headed in and I believe there were enough chairs to fit around 60+ people in the hall. We sat on the 3rd row and suddenly I was called by one of the volunteers and asked to take out all the copies of my certs from my clear file, which I think is ridiculous as I took all night to arrange those papers. After waiting for quite some time, the event began with a speech given by . I think it was a decent speech, what I recall from it is that we need 5c in order to succeed - confidence, communication skills, creativity, ... After the speech was done, we were segregated according to our courses, and architecture was all the way in front. Then, we were separated into two groups, one group had to go through the interviews first while the other sat for the writing test. I had to go for the interview before the test, and I was the second person to be interviewed. While I was waiting for my turn, my friend Wynton Lee from high school came to wish me luck, and that made me feel a bit less nervous. The first guy - Ali, he seemed a bit nervous and it didn't look like the interview went well for him. He told us to introduce ourselves first when we get to the interviewing booth before we start with anything, as that was what he had missed. When it was my turn, I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but I guess I managed to compose myself beforehand and greeted the interviewers with confidence. There were two interviews, both of the male species, and I believe they are the professors of the course in Taylor's. One of them, Mr Keith sat right opposite my table while the other sat next to me. I have a terrible memory by the way, so do forgive me as I don't remember the name of the other interviewer.
They asked me quite interesting questions, such as:
1. Why did you pick architecture?
Because I feel like architecture is the safest choice for me.
2. That is an interesting answer. Why do you think so?
I am interested in woodwork and art blablabla so I think the best way for me to pursue a career based on my passion is by taking up architecture as it also provides a decent amount of salary. Also architecture can help more people blablabla and more benificial etc
3. *flips certs* Oh I see that you can speak Mandarin. Oh and you have received a letter of appreciation from blablabla?
4. What will you do when you have become an architect?
Well I would like to be an established architect in the US blablabla
No, I mean after you have a successful architect.
I would like to help those in need aka third world countries blabla
But you can't do that in the US, can you?
I only want to be an established architect there, but also do projects out of the country.
If you do that, won't it be hard for you to get a decent pay?
Well if I'm already successful, I would be pretty darn rich already. (Even the second interviewer was agreeing on this)
5. Do you have questions for us?
What is your first impression of me.
Your certificates are interesting blabla you are confident in presenting yourself and you do not seem to fake yourself aka not memorising anything, the conversation was fluid etc
Basically the whole session was more like a conversation with the professors. I was pretty confident with it, and was shocked to find out that the interview didn't go so well with the rest of the interviewees and that some of them finds the interviewers intimidating. After I was done with that, I was ushered to the tables arranged on the other side of the hall to sit for the writing test. The questions given were as such:
1. If you are a future leader, what would you do to make the world a better place?
2. Based on a recent book that you've read, state what motivation you have gained from it.
*The questions and answers are not exactly the same but somewhat similar to what I had encountered on that day itself.
I had no trouble writing the essays, and I managed to complete it before the allocated time which was an hour. After we were done with both the interview and the essay writing session, we were told to head downstairs to the canteen for lunch. I didn't see my friends around so I decided to sit with Ali, since he also applied for architecture. The experience wasn't entirely awkward, and its funny that I met him again during another interview (read my UiTM interview post). After lunch, I bumped into Iman and we went to the surau to perform our Zuhur prayers. By the time we returned to the hall, most of them had left for the campus tour. Luckily, there were others like us who missed the announcement and we went on a separate tour with one of the volunteers. Lucky for me, she brought us up to the architecture studio as a few of the architecture candidates were there with us. In my opinion, the studio seemed alright, it probably didn't impress me as I am kinda used to the art studio that I used to work in while I was in Cempaka. After the tour, we headed back to the hall and waited for the results.
The way they announced the results was by displaying our names on the projector one by one, and whoever's name is displayed is to proceed to the tables arranged in front. From there, the staff let us know whether we had passed the first round or not, and they also offered us other scholarships that suits us. So for my case, I passed the first round of interview (luckily!) and at the same time I was also offered a RM15k scholarship which I can accept as a backup incase I don't pass the second round of interview. To accept the scholarship, I must pay RM650 for registration fees and this particular deal was what made me decline the offer. Anyway, after the announcement was done, I went to the counselling area near the Bursary and Finance centre to receive the details about the course and what not. After that, Iman and I went to Starbucks in the campus, got our drinks and chilled for a bit. I left the place around 4.30pm by a taxi which I had ordered through MyTeksi, then took the KTM train to KL Sentral.
I believe the most important thing that I should mention is whether I have any tips to pass the interview. Well, I must say that confidence is key in passing any interviews, and you also need to have a good command of English as the whole interview was in English. Also, in my situation, I had a few uncommon certificates which really wowed the interviewees, so if you're still in school, definitely make sure that you put in extra effort in your extra-curricular as they really do pay attention to it. During the interview itself, don't be nervous. Be yourself, and don't try too hard to impress the interviewers. Most importantly, enjoy yourself!
For me, the whole thing was a good experience, which is great as it is the first interview I had to attend this year. I hope this post has been helpful, or at least interesting to be read. Let me know how your interviews went and if you have any questions, leave a comment below! Thank you for stopping by :)
If you'd like to read about the first round of the TWCS interview, click here!
// JPA-MARA SAC Interview // UiTM Sarjana Muda (Sains) Senibina Interview //
-am-
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