Articles of Advice

Advice:

• Know your personal statement by heart and be able to elaborate on key points of it

• Know that you were invited to an interview for a reason (you are a desired candidate)

• Remember to be formal and polite (smile)

• Show that you are enthusiastic and feel free to go on tangents (don’t be afraid of talking too much - the interviewer will guide the length of your answers)

• Pre-learned answers (word by word) are recognised and interviewers stop your answer and gently nudge you towards topics that you haven’t rehearsed

• If still possible, write your personal statement such that you end up explaining something in the interview (mention a topic that is too complex to be outlined in the length of the personal statement. An interviewer will be inclined to ask you about it. Getting into a situation where you end up explaining will make it easy for you to demonstrate passion)

• Do not worry about what you are wearing at all

Imperial College London.

The “interview event” consisted of a tour of the university followed by the in-person individual interviews. I was assigned an office and professor with which I was supposed to have my interview. Entering the office I was greeted by the friendly smile of Professor Ihrasca. (The interviewers do everything to set you at ease). I was first asked general questions about my nationality, the travel to London, and the tour of the university. After having answered these questions I found that I had loosened up considerably and could talk freely.

He then began questioning me about my personal statement. I was asked about a device called an impactor, which I had mentioned in the description of my internship. The word limit of the personal statement had prevented me from describing it completely and so I now had the chance to outline the device and how it worked. I had prepared for such technical questions in the days before the interview. Similarly, I was asked about the working principles of a Stirling Engine for which I had described my passion in the personal statement. Having the ability to explain something really helped me show my passion for the subject while demonstrating key communication strengths. Towards the end of the interview I was asked to solve a simple torque problem. I tried to “think out loud”, explaining my solution attempt to professor Ihrasca. At the end of the interview I was asked about my motivation for studying engineering and especially studying in London.

Oxford (Exeter & Lady Margaret Hall)

I got to dine and stay at the university’s accommodation, allowing me to familiarise myself with the quite special Oxford atmosphere. On the first day I had the chance to explore the campus and the city, while on the second day I completed both interviews. For Exeter I was guided into a room that resembled a living room with two professors sitting at a desk. After a question on my motivation for studying engineering we moved straight to mathematics and physics questions. I was asked to plot the following function f(x) = sin(x^2+10)+x. I outlined my approach of first plotting each term of the function separately and then combining the results. While my performance in the other interview questions was not too great, I believe that this style of methodically approaching the solution to a question is what the interviewers were looking for.

At lady Margaret Hall I was guided into a waiting room where I was given a sheet with 15 physics and math questions to look at for 15 minutes. I was given the time to make up my mind about some methods to approach them and just to familiarize myself with the problems. The interview then consisted of two professors going through my solution methods with me and guiding me along the way.