CBYX/ ASSE Application and Interview Tips (from an exchange student)
I’m applying for Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX), and this is my blog about getting accepted and getting to Germany.
If you’re trying to prepare for a CBYX interview, here are some mock questions to help you practice.
*Remember: These questions are not guaranteed at any CBYX interview. They change the questions every year, but the questions they will ask at the interview are very similar to these. Practicing these can help you get an idea of what they might ask you at your upcoming interview*
-What would you do if your host family stopped talking to you and you didn’t know why? -Germans are very reserved people, how do you plan on making friends and socializing at school? -What would you do if your host sister/brother stopped asking you to hang out with him/her and go out on the weekends? -What would you do if your host mother prepared for you a big nasty looking meal? -What do you think are the effects of constantly Skyping your friends and family back home in the U.S? -If you could bring one thing to Germany with you, what would you bring and why? -What do you do that causes tension within your household? -How will you deal with homesickness? -If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why? -Germans are very interested in world politics, how would you describe your political views and thoughts of America’s government system? -Why do you want to go to Germany? -Why should we choose you as a CBYX finalist?
After all the individual interviews were done, we were all brought into the room for the group interview. From what I heard from other CBYXers, the group interview was the same everywhere. We were split into 2 teams and were given paper and other materials. Our task was to try to build the tallest tower. The catch was that we were not allowed to use any words. After time was up, we were asked questions about the process of building the tower and how it represents America and exchange. The other kids were pretty quick in responding and had some great answers, which did not help my worry.
My interview was at a college about half an hour away from my home. I was pretty nervous the entire way. I was one of 7 kids in my session. The first part of the interview was talking to a few returnees about their experience in Germany, their experience coming back, the application process, etc. Then, the interviewers would call us up one by one for the individual interview.
The individual interview was pretty intimidating. I sat at a table in a big conference room across from 7 interviewers. Seven adults that stared at you as you answered, in my opinion, pretty weird questions. Obviously, there was “Why do you want to go to Germany?” but there was also “Describe a time when you had to be the mediator of a dispute” and “Describe a time when you seriously misjudged someone” and other questions asking you to recall a time when something happened. I was nervous to begin with and seven people staring at me while I answered questions didn’t really help my anxiety. I answered the questions to the best of my ability, but to be honest, I’m pretty sure I was a mess.
So this post will be a continuation of my last post and get into the more specific details of my interview process. During the group discussion I purposely sat as close to the interviewers as possible so that I could make good eye contact with them and easily ask questions. Near the end of the interview I tried to have good broad questions which would demonstrate my interest for the program and to show that I was interested in their experiences (this was not rehearsed! I was genuinely curious about some parts of the program and it was great to hear their opinions). After the discussion all of the other applicants left while the fourth one went into his interview. Meanwhile I looked around their office and was very curious about the variety of trinkets they had collected on their shelves from a variety of different countries they work with. Finally I was the last remaining applicants and I was escorted to the interview room where all of the fiver interviewers were sitting around a table with Sue on one end and me at the other. One thing I made sure to do was print enough copies of my resume and question sheet for everyone to have their own copy. To my excitement they were thrilled to discover they each had their own materials to read and loved the cute folders that they came in. This made the start of my interview more light hearted and personable and immediately helped me to relax. After this they went right into the questions. I would say 2/3 of the questions they asked me came directly from the pre interview question practice I had. The was great because I knew what points were important for me to bring up and I did not have to worry about fumbling my words and trying to organize my thoughts. This helped me save some time so I had the chance to answer more questions in depth later. The other 1/3 were some more specific questions I could not have prepared for. These included whether for not I had any significant other, how I would afford the program and what my opinions would be on certain scenarios. One of my favorite questions regarded the internship. Sue Franck knew that I was interested in history and brought up the possibility of a historical internship picking white asparagus in fields in Germany. My immediate response was that it sounded like an awesome opportunity and it would be a super cool opportunity. This response surprised some of the interviewers and they loved my reaction. Honestly the most difficult questions was why they should choose me over the other applicants. This was one I knew would come up but I found it difficult to explain why they should choose me without coming across as cocky or arrogant. Overall I feel a lot better coming out of the interview than I thought I would. Everyone says that they were nervous wrecks afterwards and regretted things they said or did not say. I feel like I did the best job that I could have done and accurately represented myself to the interviewers. Hopefully they will recognize my passion for this program and will accept me into the program, but if they don’t then I know I could not Ave done any better and the program was not suited to me as well as I thought it was. Don’t get me wrong I would fly there tomorrow if I could, but I respect the chairs of the organization and understand they have much more experience working with people in this program than I do and they will pick the best applicants to participate in the program. Semi finalists will be given their results in the last week of March, which is a relief. I basically have to wait two weeks before gettin my results, my trip to Spain will go by super fast and by the time I get back I can expect results at any moment. The next to weeks are super busy for me too so hopefully the results come faster than the interview did because I don’t know if I can handle more stress about waiting to hear back from this program! I don’t know when I will post again but it will probably be when I’m inevitably stressing out or here back from the program. Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!
