hey everyone welcome back to my channel my name is charlotte today we're going to be talking about ways for you to ace your rotc scholarship interview so a little background currently i am a freshman at vanderbilt university with a four-year army rotc scholarship i got my scholarship the second board applied for the second board so i got it my first time around i'm talking this video from experience because i have gone through the process myself and also i went through the process kind of alone i really didn't know what i was doing so the reason i'm making these videos is to help anybody out there who's a little bit confused like i was so now let's get into the reason you're actually watching this video how can i do well on my rotc scholarship interview i've already mentioned this in a video i've done previously make sure you're interviewing with the school that you want to go to with army they give you the choice to reach out to the university in air force they reach out to you so you really don't have a much of a choice in air force wise but for army you do so take advantage of that the first official tip is to prep your answers for your interview so i'm going to give you just a baseline of some questions that you should definitely have answers prepared for tell me about yourself this one's very open-ended so you can really do whatever you want with it but remember that you're being interviewed for a military scholarship so you should be describing some traits of yourself that would be appealing to the military and that would help you succeed in the military but don't go on and on about yourself make it short and sweet and straight to the point what has your leadership experience taught you this is a question that i was asked in both my army and air force interviews make sure you're ready for that one because rotc is basically for you to become an officer in the military they're all about looking for qualities that will make a good leader why do you want to do rotc why the army or the navy or the air force whatever branch you're gonna do so for me the army was the most appealing because it's just the biggest branch there's the most opportunities for me and i want to go into the field of like more logistics and business side of things also prepared to answer the question about service obligation so if you don't know already if you end up getting an rotc scholarship that pays for your tuition fees and gives you a stipend you know you're not getting that money for free you're promising military service after you graduate so make sure you're able to talk about your understanding of that and your passion about serving the country and serving in the military the interviewer might ask you about why you want to go to the college that you're interviewing with not strictly just rotc based you can talk about other opportunities that the school offers that are really interesting to you the next question you should prepare for is what are your strengths and weaknesses so this is kind of like a hard question especially weakness-wise because you don't want to say that i'm super like out of shape and i can't even do one push-up because that would be terrible yes you want to be honest but to be really strategic you should take your weakness and make it into a strength so for example my weakness for me was that i worked my people too hard so when i was a drill captain the entire hour of practice would be go go go go i didn't really allow time for much socializing i was so focused on getting the job done that i didn't think about the other important things that a team needs you can see that as a weakness but you can also see that as a strength you should also be prepared to talk about what you plan to do in the military now i'm gonna be honest i really had no idea when i first started my rhc application but i did the research honestly just pick a branch that is semi-interesting to you do some research and just like be able to talk about it the next tip i have for you to ace your interview is to have a family or friend or somebody that will ask you these questions that i just gave you and will help prepare you so you can write down and like think about your questions all you want but it's very important you practice articulating your message and being very clear in your responses because you don't want to be mumbling you don't want to be saying um uh that does not look good so make sure you have a general idea of how you're going to get your point across my next tip is to do research about the college you're interviewing with and their rotc program there like look into the different rotc activities they have just show that you're interested show that you have done your research so the next tip is probably one of the most important i would say is to ask questions at the end so at the end of every interview probably ever in your entire life they're gonna ask do you have any questions for me and if you do not ask a question it is it is not smart if you don't personally have any questions just think of something that maybe someone else would have a question for and the reason why is because asking a question shows interest and if you don't ask a question then the interviewer is probably gonna think that you don't really care maybe that you're also a know-it-all and you don't think you can learn anything from them also prepare some questions that you're gonna ask the interviewer so for me i always ask like what would be your advice for me to become the best officer i can be also ask for advice of going through rotc in high school obviously don't bombard them but just show that you're interested and you respect that they have a lot of experience and that you have a lot to learn from them another tip i have for you is pretty basic i think i need to say it just in case someone doesn't know but you should definitely be dressing professionally at these interviews so for girls wear a professional like business dress or like a business casual skirt make sure the skirt goes below your knees okay we don't need anything showing you're trying to look mature and that goes for boys as well make sure your shirt is not like super bright and eye-catching with like bananas on it dress shirt maybe some dress pants a tie show that you're taking it seriously i think that the way you present yourself is very important in the interviews another way to ice your interview is while they're asking you questions be writing notes for me i did my interview through zoom so i don't really know if they could even see me writing notes but i was listening very intently i was looking them in the eyes i was making the connection i was nodding my head i was writing down certain things they were asking me just so when i was answering the question that i could answer it fully and also when i asked for their advice i was definitely writing down their advice for me another thing that's super super important in your interview is to thank the interviewer for taking the time to sit down with you and interview you but when the interviewer asks you the first question if you haven't had a chance to say it yet you should definitely thank them for their time at the end of the interview you've already asked all your questions they've already been all answered make sure you thank them a second time just so they really understand that you're very appreciated i'm sorry i can't talk right now my last and most important interview tip for you guys is to not stress out don't overthink it my interviewers were very nice you do not have much to be worried about as long as you follow these tips the vibe you give off and the connection you make with the interviewer is probably one of the most important parts of the interview itself the interview is to really get to know you as a person and how you present yourself you're gonna do great so don't stress about it i'm also very curious to hear other like rotc scholarship interview stories so if you have also got this process i'd love to hear like a question that they ask you so let me know in the comments down below like what your experience was or if you have any other questions for me about the rotc scholarship application process whether it be interview essay pt whatever it is i also have a lot of other videos getting tips about the other parts of the application make sure you guys go check those out i'm also currently at vanderbilt university so i'm super super excited to do more videos about army rotc here and just the life of a vanderbilt student so be sure to subscribe to my channel so you get notified when i post more videos and also if you enjoyed this video give it a nice big thumbs up and with that have a great rest of your day [Music]