Helpful scholarship interview tips

The thought of being interviewed can rattle even the steadiest of nerves, and send ordinarily confident people into a spin.

Before a job interview you might feel the butterflies building, and your palms sweating – and that’s totally normal!

Interviewing for a scholarship is much the same, and it can be a daunting process. Luckily, for those selected for an interview for either the Mavis Wynne or Jenny Milner scholarships, there’s a lot to be gained from the experience.

While our scholarship interviews are much more of an ‘informal chat’, and only go for about 15 minutes, we’ve compiled the following list of tips and tricks that might be useful… and could even help you with future interviews!  

All of these tips and tricks are relevant for both in-person and Zoom interviews as well :)

Be comprehensive – we want to hear all about you, so make sure you paint a clear picture of what you like to do, what subjects you’re good at and what your future goals are. The things you might find boring, actually might make you stand out!  

Be proud of your achievements – all students we interview have achieved something, be it great or small. When we see our applicants show pride in themselves, it really shines through!

Do your research – allocating scholarships to students is not only hugely rewarding, it also means Mavis and Jenny’s legacies continue. So, it’s always really nice to see when students have done their research about how these scholarships came about, and what they mean to the community. You can find out more about the scholarships here.  

Be yourself! We love meeting all the students we interview, and no two applicants are the same. There’s no need to be nervous, we’re a really friendly bunch. So just be yourself and you’ll do really well!  

Hopefully the above tips help you with future scholarship interviews, or maybe even that summer job you’d love to get. After all, it’s nice to have a little extra pocket money before setting off on your post-school adventures!