The Interview
During the interview you will be asked questions by a panel consisting of six current and former Terry Scholars. Frequently, a Director of the Foundation will be involved in conducting the interview. You will be asked questions concerning your academic and personal background, as well as your family’s financial circumstances. You will also review the information from the Terry Financial Data Form submitted online prior to the interview. You will also be told a little bit about the Foundation and its activities and be given an opportunity to ask any questions. The process is informal and usually takes less than 30 minutes.
Please plan to be ready and available at least 30 minutes before your scheduled interview time.
The interview will focus on your goals, your academic achievements, your demonstrated leadership, and your level of financial need. You should be prepared to discuss all of these. This is your chance to tell us your story and explain why you are deserving of a scholarship. This is your future so don’t be shy.
In terms of financial need, you should be prepared to discuss with the interview panel your household financial circumstances. To help you with this, the Terry Foundation requires you to complete the online Terry Financial Data Form. The link to the online form is provided in the email invitation to interview. The panel chair will review your completed form during the interview , and you will discuss its contents with your panel. Therefore, you should be as familiar as you can with your family’s income and asset value figures shown on both your application and the Terry Financial Data Form. You will be asked about any other grants or scholarships you expect to receive. You will also be asked for the current balances of any funds or bank accounts that have been set aside either by your family or others to provide financial support for your college education. This includes savings accounts or other college savings accounts like 529 plans or the Texas Tomorrow Fund.
This interview is important both for you and the Foundation. Please dress accordingly. The members of the interview committee wear traditional business attire: coats & ties for gentlemen and professional attire for women; however, if you do not have a coat or tie or “business” attire, do not go out and buy them for this interview. Just dress as nicely as you can.
If you find out that you are not going to be able to attend your scheduled interview for any reason, or if you decide to attend a different university not affiliated with the Terry Scholarship Program and wish to cancel your interview, please call us as soon as possible to let us know. We have alternates who would very much like to take your interview slot. Failure to give us advance notice of cancellation may deprive someone else of a chance to get a scholarship.
No. A resume is not necessary. We have designed our application form to obtain most of the pertinent information about our applicants for consideration by our scholarship interview panels. At your interview, of course, you will have opportunity to speak with the panel members to supplement or update the information in your application to bring to the panel’s attention any information that you believe may assist in evaluating your scholarship application.
No. Prior to your interview you will meet with the Foundation’s staff, who can probably answer most of the questions you might have about the Foundation or the scholarship selection process. At some point during the interview, you will probably be asked whether you have any questions for your interview panel. If you still have questions, by all means feel free to ask them. But do not feel obligated to ask a question. We do not evaluate questions asked in the interview in selecting students to receive our scholarship.
No. One requirement of the Traditional Scholarship is that students live on campus during the student’s freshman year. Please do not interview if you do not intend to comply with this requirement.
No. The Terry Foundation will contact you by email about the outcome of your interview.
Traditional Scholarship candidates will receive an email from the Foundation as to whether or not you have been granted a scholarship no later than May 1. Please do not call the Foundation offices prior to the deadline to inquire about the results of your interview.
Yes. If you receive a Terry Scholarship offer, you will receive a Terry Foundation Scholarship Agreement that sets forth certain commitments in connection with your acceptance of the Terry Foundation Scholarship. In order to obtain the Scholarship, you will be asked to sign and return the agreement.
No. Decisions on offering scholarships are not subject to any appeals. The large numbers of students that we interview and the collective panel nature of our interview process make it impossible to provide any statement of reasons for our decision on any particular student. Similarly, we cannot provide a critique of how any particular student did in his or her interview. It is our experience that virtually all students selected for an interview do well in their interview. Indeed, it is our hope and expectation that participating in our interview process is a beneficial experience for all who participate, regardless of whether or not we are ultimately able to offer them a scholarship.
The Terry Foundation selects students to receive scholarships based on a variety of factors, including financial need. Every student that we interview is expected to do well in college and has been chosen by his or her university to interview because the school believes that student has the desire and capability to succeed.
Yes. We expect and encourage every student to seek and accept all scholarships and grants for which they may be qualified. Your counselor and the financial aid office at your university are good sources for information about other financial aid for which you may qualify. In addition, web sites such as www.collegeforalltexans.com and www.finaid.org may provide valuable scholarship and grant information.
Additional information about requirements for the Terry Foundation Scholarship can be found on the FAQs Page.
