Getting in: The Interview

In my previous post, I covered applying to SILS. After you submit your application, you have an agonizing wait until you get the results of your document screening. I probably mentioned this already, but the application process has two main parts: the document screening and the interview. After both of these, some people make the cut, and some people get turned down. Those who make it past the interview get accepted. I'll be talking about the interview process in this post.

Summary of the Interview Process

1. Hour-long essay writing test, choice of prompt from a list of 3.
2. 20 minute long interview with SILS faculty via teleconference.

But first, I'll talk a little about your chances.

What are your chances of getting in? Take a look at the applicants results page. This gives you a run-down of how many people got through each part in past application periods. You can see that most people get eliminated during the document review. So if you actually get an interview, you have a high chance of being accepted.

I don't know whether the interviews for the upcoming application period will be the same as the one I experienced, or even whether all applicants undergo a similar interview process. It could be totally different for you, but I'll describe how mine went down.

Eventually a package was express mailed to me. Hoping for the best, I tore it open and found two documents. One congratulated me on passing the document review and gave me the info on when my interview and writing test would be. Wait, writing test, what the hell? I didn't expect to have one of those. The other was a little postcard with my name and application number and other things on it, my "AO Admission Card". I've still got that thing, apparently I'll be exchanging it when I get to Tokyo for my real student ID.

I was relieved that I had passed the document review, but now this interview gave me more to worry about. So I worried until the interview came, and in the meantime I bought some nice clothes and tried practice interviewing myself in my head, imagining questions they might ask.

My interview took place in the Waseda Oregon Office at Portland State University, where I was attending classes at the time. I barely arrived on schedule, and a nice man escorted me to what looked like his office. He had two desks set up, and I sat in the one prepared for me. In the other one, I was surprised to find a girl who was also applying to SILS. She was also dressed way nicer than me, which made me a little nervous.

I was handed a schedule, and it was then that I figured out the true structure of the interview. We would wait and do nothing for 30 minutes, then there was a 1 hour long writing test, and then we would wait some more before we each had our separate interviews, hers first. Altogether I think it was 4 hours or so.

The test would be an essay test. We had one hour to write an essay. When the writing test began, I was given a choice of 3 prompts to write about. The first one was a Napoleon quote and something about history being a set of lies believed by everyone, the second one was an excerpt from Hamlet and a question I didn't even bother reading because there was no way in hell I was going to analyze Shakespeare on the spot, and the third was a prompt to write a persuasive essay about whether specialization (like college majors) should begin earlier in the whole education process. I definitely didn't want to do the Hamlet one, and I figured the third one was a trick question because SILS itself doesn't look like it's specialized, and by process of elimination I decided on the first prompt. Luckily, my history teacher in high school made us learn about historiography, so I just wrote a quick outline and then lots of crap about that. I think I filled 4 pages and had 10 minutes left to go over what I wrote and correct things. I've had the generic essay format drilled into my head since elementary school, so I followed it: introduction with thesis, 3-ish supporting paragraphs with specific examples, conclusion that references all the junk I already talked about. Done. I was feeling good about myself because I thought I had pulled together a pretty decent essay.

After that we waited around for a while until our interview times were. I had the chance to talk with the girl who was also applying. It turns out she had flown here from Nevada! And all this time I had thought she was from Portland too, or at least somewhere close like Seattle. No wonder she had such fancy clothes on. I guess this means that you'll be expected to fly out for the interview if you're not lucky enough to live near the interview spots.

I was still worried about the interview. I had all these dumb questions flying around my head. Should I speak Japanese first? Should I shake their hands or bow or both?! Are there any weird Japanese interview rituals I should have known about? (I actually had asked my Japanese teacher if there were, and she told me to put my hands in my lap and sit up straight, because it made me look respectful, or something.)

Our Waseda guy explained to us that the interview would be taking place via teleconference, and I laid those worries to rest. The girl got interviewed first, and I worried some more until it was my turn, and then I really worried. It was probably the most nervous moment of my life. So nervous, in fact, that my brain kind of went on autopilot and I honestly don't remember lots of specifics about the interview, but I'll do my best in describing it.

Once it was my turn, I was led to a television with a webcam type thing on the top of it, and on the TV I saw two SILS professors. They were white, so I didn't bother with any of the Japanese niceties I had spent so long studying in my Japanese class, lest I look like an idiot. We greeted each other, and they began grilling me.

They asked me a lot of questions. "Why Japan?" "Why Waseda?" They asked what I wanted to study, what subjects I was interested in, what I planned to do after college, stuff like that. They talked about my essay, too. It was kind of the jumping-off point. I don't know if I just got really really lucky, or if they pick professors to interview you who best match, but they ended up being linguistics and literature guys. Linguistics and translation is my main interest, and I had namedropped Kawabata's Snow County in my essay, so I had the perfect people to interview me. They asked me a few random questions about my favorite aspect of linguistics, studying Japanese ("what's the most interest part of Japanese? the hardest?"), etc. I got to say "Proto-Indo-Europoean" which probably made me look smart. It seemed like the literature professor was testing me on whether I thought Japan was actually like Snow County, like I guess if I thought I could go to small snowy villages and get in weird sexual relationships with geishas? I had to demonstrate that no, I was more interested in modern Japan, but I wouldn't mind visiting a snowy little village some day. 

I always have trouble answering why I want to go to Japan. I have lots of reasons, some better than others. I stuck with wanting a career that had to do with mastering a language, or something. I would recommend practicing answers for these types of questions. Anyway I managed to answer all of the questions they threw at me. Like I said, my brain was on auto-pilot so I was kind of just saying things that came to mind. I bet if I watched a recording of me it would be embarrassing and hilarious. After they stopped questioning me, they asked if I had any questions. Of course I did! I asked them 3 questions. Something about jobs/grad school, something about the circles, and something else but I remember it being pretty good. They were questions that I kinda already knew the answer to but I wanted to demonstrate that I had been seriously thinking about things. I think the questions I asked really helped me, and I even used one to do some damage control on a question I had poorly answered earlier. They seemed pretty impressed at my questions, but after the third one they let me go. If you can glean one piece of advice from this post, come up with some genuinely good questions to ask the interviewers! 

After my interview, I headed home, and replayed all the dumb stuff I had said over and over in my head. I think that's about it! Please feel free to ask me about the interview by commenting here, and I'll answer the best I can. If there are any SILS students reading this, it would also help for you to share your interview experience.

Comments

[Fang]

Hi Greg，I'm going to SILS in this April as well =)

Just to share my interview process.
There was no writing test for me, just the teleconference interview with two professors. If I get that sets of essay questions, I would have chose the last one though =p

The questions they asked me are more or less similar to yours, like why Japan, and what I want to do after college. No questions on the subjects of my interest, probably because I had mentioned those in my application essay.

Two random questions they asked me: which circle you want to join, tell me something about the book that you read recently.

And I do agree that prepare one or two questions to ask them might help. Genuinely good ones of course =)

[Laura]

Hello Greg!
My name is Laura! I went to SILS as an SP3. Im currently reapplying to Waseda's Graduate School of Asian Pacific Studies. (They used to share the same building when I went there). I'm freakin out a bit because when I went in as an SP3 I didn't have to do an interview. now sometime within the next week I'm going to be interviewed by a professor. Your website cause my eye! You're applying for September 2010 admissions correct? I am as well!! Goodluck to you!

[Jennifer]

Hi, Greg!

I'm Jennifer and just passed document screening. Same with you, they will give me an interview and writing test. You stated on your essay that you asked the interviewers something about circles, what does it mean?

I see that the topics for essay writing are a bit difficult :P, what do you think about the things I need to prepare for the writing test since my first language isn't English?

Thanks!

[Greg]

Hey Jennifer. Congratulations! You've passed the hard part. Circles are Waseda's name for clubs, you can read more about them here http://www.sodai.org/2009/03/student-clubs-.html
For the essay, I'd suggest reviewing the basic essay writing format. Be sure that every time you make a point, you support it with some kind of evidence. Have an introduction and conclusion. Stuff like that. Maybe go over some English vocabulary? Judging from your comment your English is good, so I don't think you'll have any problems. Good luck!

[Jennifer]

Thanks for the reply, Greg!

Can you tell how many clubs that Waseda has since I still can't read Japanese? :D

I see that the interviewers will ask about the reasons why I want to go to Waseda, why Japan, etc. Can I answer them based on the essay that I have sent them before on the application documents?

So, you mean it will be more like IELTS writing text right? Introduction, Arguments, Examples, and Conclusion. I'm thinking about practicing the writing test from SAT essay topics, do you think it will help? How many pages/words they tell us to write?

Sorry to trouble you and Thank you so much!

[Greg]

I'm not sure how many clubs there are, there's a lot though. You can use stuff from your essay in the interview and talk about it. The writing part is a lot like the SAT writing section, so practicing that would help. There isn't a specific number of pages you need to write but I wrote 3 or 4. My handwriting is pretty big though. 

[Jennifer]

Is there any clubs about basketball or making film?

I see.. And one more thing, my interview will be held in Taipei and I'm going there with my father from Indonesia. Can my father wait for me when I'm doing the interview?

Thanks! :)

[Dickwad]

You all fucking such you worthless piece of shit! FUCKING COCKSUCKERS.
@ Greg: YOU suck the most cock, fucking douche. Remember me.

Fuck you all. Don't waste your time.

[Greg]

Sorry I was so late in replying, I actually just go to Japan and I've been settling in. There are basketball clubs, I'm not sure about filmmaking but I imagine so (this might be a good thing to ask the interviewers). They probably won't let your dad be in the same room as you, but they may have somewhere for him to wait. I'd think they would. 

[xmin]

Hey greg!

Thank you very much for these posts abt applying to Waseda SILS! I just finished the interview yesterday, and I wouldnt have been able to anticipate the scenario so well if it wasnt for your help! xD It was exactly like you said, a teleconference, with 2 caucasian dudes on the other side of the cam, asking me those type of questions that they asked you. =) Now I can only hope for the best for the release of the results.