So today I had my semifinalist interview for NSLI-Y and I thought I’d share how things went down. Honestly, it was a lot less stressful than I thought it was going to be and I actually kind of enjoyed it.
My interview was from 9 am-12 pm, but I finished about 11. Since the interview location was about 3-4 hours away from my house, my parents and I ended up staying in a hotel the night before. The interview was held at a church (in the nursery/childcare part, actually) and it was hosted by AFS. We got there about 20 minutes early, but over half of the applicants had already arrived, so I highly suggest getting there pretty early. There were 14 other people applying. I didn’t get the chance to talk to them too much, but I think a lot were there for Russia, India, and China. Everyone was dressed nice- I saw a lot of girls in skirts and pants and a blazer. I wore a dress with tights and a sweater because I just really like dresses, haha. Just wear something nice and comfortable- you want to be presentable and make a good impression!
We signed in and got name tags, and then both the parents and applicants had to fill out some paperwork. The parent questionnaire was pretty short and asked questions about home and family life, as well as things like “what are three adjectives to describe the applicant”. The questionnaire I had to fill out was fairly long, and also asked about home life, family, school and after school activities, as well as your goals for the program, etc. I think it really helped me prepare and brainstorm some answers as a lot of the questions came up again in the actual interview.
Then AFS gave a presentation on studying abroad as well as the programs they offer. They talked about some general study abroad information and then offered other opportunities in case you don’t get NSLI-Y. In fact, they gave out AFS application fee waivers for semifinalists so that if they wanted to do an exchange with AFS, they don’t have to pay the 75$ app fee. They also had a refreshments table set up in the back, but no one was there before the interviews because we were all too nervous (I know I was).
Since there were more applicants than volunteers at my location, there were two groups of interviews with a 15 minute break in between. Thankfully, I was in the first group (I think I would have died if I waited any longer) and we went with our parents and interviewer into a private room. My parents stayed for around 15 minutes, and in that time they could ask questions about the program and then do a little “family interview” type thing. I guess bringing the parents in for the first few minutes could help alleviate some of the nerves so you would be able to talk and concentrate better during the actual thing, but I don’t think it would have mattered if they came in at the end either. All together, my interview was about 50 minutes long, but it was the longest/one of the longest in my group.
After the interview 2 NSLI-Y alumni (one that went to India and one that went to Russia) gave short presentations and answered questions, and then the second group of interviews started. After the second ones started I left. Now on to the questions! I have no idea if these questions are asked to everyone, but they are still helpful to prepare with and get you thinking about what you want to bring up.
Question asked with parents:
-Home life: who lives with you, what pets you have, any living restrictions or allergies
-describe the neighborhood and community where you live
-Parents: describe your son/daughter
-What activities do you do as a family
-After school activities, school life
Questions they asked me ALONEE:
-why the summer program? (I’m guessing it might be “Why year?” if you are applying for that)
-Why Korea/China (or insert choices here)? What got you interested in these countries/cultures/languages?
-What if you host family has different rules than your household? What would you do?
-What if your host family is really busy and can’t spend time with you?
-Positives and Negatives of the program
-What if your host family or others can’t understand you/your accent? How would you deal with this?
-Describe a time someone said something you didn’t want to hear
-Describe a difficult situation
-Describe yourself (this was a little awkward for me to do, haha)
-Talk about a time when you felt disappointed
-What would your friends describe you as?
-When was a time you tried something new?
-Describe a time you were in an unfamiliar situation? How did you handle it?
-Describe your sense of humor
That was basically it. One of my main tips would be to try and thing of a lot of situations in your life that were hard/helped shape you as a person and try and slip those in. I had came up with a list and then just tailored them to the question she asked. Also, just try and be calm, personable, and polite :). Don’t stress out and don’t prepare too much! Bonne Chance!
(Originally published January 25th on tumblr)
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