The Adventures of Andrew Lee

2 December 2007

Student Advice about the Truman Scholarship

Posted by Andrew under: Exhortation; Scholarships .

By Andrew Lee, Truman Scholar from CO’06 (Published 3/07; Republished Dec. 2, 2007)– (For anyone interested in adding or wanting me to link any other documents, please contact me at Andrew@andrewlee.com).

So, I’ve recently received a lot of questions about insider advice and how to best prepare for the Truman Scholarship process, so I decided to write a document that will be able to provide some Insider Student Advice about how to do your best and win the Truman Scholarship. By making this open and more detailed than other advice out there, I hope to make the process more transparent and also help those out there without a lot of institutional knowledge and advice.

The Truman Scholarship has been one of the best opportunities for my career and for my life. The community (colleagues and mentors) help me to remember why I dedicate my life to public service and bettering the world. Nevertheless, I just want you to know that many students who do not receive the Truman go on to win other scholarships (Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, NSF, etc.) and it is always better to have gone through the process than to have not.

The process helps you assess your status in life, where you’re going, and most importantly what matters to you. Even if I did not win the Truman, I would still be a better person for it. Especially if you see yourself in public service (civil service, public office, advocacy, non-profit, or anything for that matter), applying for the Truman Scholarship is a no-brainer.

Additionally, I suggest that you go ahead and reach out. There is no harm in contacting previous alumni from your college or even current Truman Scholars. If they don’t get back to you it is because (a) they’re too busy, and you need to contact them again or (b) they somehow missed your contact. If someone doesn’t want to be helpful, then they’re probably not gonna give good advice anyway. Enough prologue! The real advice after the jump…

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APPLICATION AND SCHOOL SELECTION
Because your university can only nominate 4 people, being a nominee from your school is quite an honor. Especially if you go to a large university, the feat is more impressive. The criterion with the Truman are fairly straightforward, they want to see that you have displayed leadership, commitment to public service, and also that you are academically qualified. On the application, my advice is as follows:

1. Start early on your application. Don’t put it off to the last minute. Make multiple drafts of it. Each word should have impact. Eliminate the passive voice, and write well.
2. Research the website. Read thoroughly the satisfactory and unsatisfactory responses. The guidance that they provide you is essential in making sure that your application is on the top of the pile.
3. Focus on the three areas of leadership, commitment, and public service. A good Truman app has all three of those areas showing something deeper- a commitment to work for the greater good.
4. The creative question is important to spend time on, especially because it is your way of giving the committee something beyond the simple three criteria of leadesrhip, public service, and academics.
5. Your recommenders should be focused on the following:
   • academic recommendation- write about specifics in academic achievement
   • public service rec - validate what you wrote as a satisfying public service activity
   • leadership rec- validate whatever you wrote about as a leader.
6. You should be going through at least five drafts of your application and getting a wide variety of readers to review your application.
7. Your policy proposal should be well researched, should somehow link to the other answers in your application, e.g. your future area of study, etc.

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INTERVIEW
SO, you’ve submitted your application. You’ve probably gone through 25 drafts of the application and pestered everyone in your circle of influence to read and re-read the application. Finalists are announced online and since everyone is clicking on the Finalists section, their server is crashing left and right. But… you see your name! Congratulations, you have made an elite group of individuals. Now you need to focus on your interview…

WARNING: At the interview stage, all the candidates are very qualified and I’m sure if you were to have the interview on another day, you might get different Truman Scholars. Once you’ve made the cut as a finalist for the Truman Scholarship, you should be very proud of yourself. You should be honored to be considered a finalist and should understand that much of what comes out of the interview is determined by luck. Even if you do your best on an interview, someone’s best may just be better than yours. Additionally, the interview is twenty minutes. Think of the numerous times that you’ve messed up a romantic date, lost an argument, and generally weren’t able to communicate in twenty minutes. Many people are done in by a bad interview. It happens to the best of us. Nevertheless, you goal is to do your best for the interview panel and show them who you are.

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Here are some suggestions/observations that I concocted or received from former Truman scholars:

• 13 other finalists will interview with you, and you will be only slightly competing with them (but don’t treat it that way). They will choose between ¼ to ½ of you for the scholarship. Befriend these people, they are amongst the elite finalists and will likely continue their work as change agents, so become friends. Additionally, bring something to read or some cards to play and get to know your fellow finalists.
• Read 3 newspapers/periodicals a day (esp. if your focus is on local politics) for two weeks, prior to your interview.
• The interview is a test of your potential not your ability to argue with the panel.
• Have 3-4 points that you want to hit within your interview. Make sure that you connect the dots with an underlying theme.
• Dress your best.
• KNOW YOUR APPLICATION INSIDE AND OUT.
• Go to this website: http://govt.cmc.edu/welliott/TRUPREP.htm and have answers to all of the questions. Practice with your friends.

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Interview Proper

• Get rest. If you can’t sleep, go work out and then drink some milk and then go to bed. It’s more important that you get rest than if you stay up all night to study for the interview.
• Be relaxed and conversational. If you come out crying, it’s okay… you may well be a scholar. Many have not received the scholarship when they think they’ve done well. So make sure you think you’ve done your best.
• Brevity is the soul of wit, brilliance, and all things scholarship-related. Try providing answers in clear and succinct sentences. Your panelists will want to ask you more questions, so give them the opportunity to do so.
• If the interview is hostile, that means that they think you can handle it. Make sure that these people are on your side.
• If you’re going to law school, answer why? Name a lawyer-leader and a lawyer in your field of choice.
• When asked about why you want to be a Truman scholar, specifically use the word “community,” but also truthfully answer why. The scholarship is nice, but it’s about a group of people in this world who are going to change it.
• If they ask you if you would run for public office, say, “Yes” or “If the opportunity arises…” Do not say no because they believe in you. EDIT: say whatever you truthfully believe. When I wrote this advice guide, a Truman scholar told me that saying “yes” was good because the Truman foundation was in flux increasing its brand (changing the J.D. ban, increasing public service requirements, and pushing for scholars who would later be politicians [think Bill Clinton-> Rhodes Scholar association]). Nevertheless, this debate will never be settled, so say whatever you truthfully believe because public service can be a wide variety of things.
• Answer their objections, by saying, “You know I can see your objections, but I disagree because (a), (b), (c).”
• You don’t want them to ask you about the Truman scholarship, that means they have nothing else to ask you. You want to get your interviewers engaged and excited in the conversation. Inspire them and make them believers in your cause.
• Make sure to answer the question of what would happen if your cause disappeared tomorrow.
• Remember those 3-4 points? Well, if you didn’t hit them in the interview, hit them in the closing statement. Don’t overload the closing though because your closing will just sound weird if there is no logical connection to your statement (so don’t go for four). I would suggest maybe aiming for one or two of your strongest points.
• After the interview, go walk and stretch out and shake off all of that energy.

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Questions I received while on the interview:

1. So you’re a Dem, who would you choose for the 2008 Prez ticket (or insert other hot race)?
2. I see that you’ve worked for Senator Ken Salazar, why did you work for him?
   1. What qualities about him inspire you?
   2. How do you think that image helps him get that message across?
3. Tell me the three greatest accomplishments thus far of the George W. Bush Presidency?
   1. Some of those impacts we may not see until the future, give me two more.
   2. Why No Child Left Behind or the Department of Homeland Security?
4. Let’s switch gears and talk about your proposal? Why not focus on conservation instead of charging folks to pay for water?
   1. But, they’re paying a large amount already in Arvada and other places along the front range?
   2. How do we know that increased prices will lead to conservation?
   3. And what about the poor?
5. Summarize for me the prior appropriations doctrine of water law? Why is it a problem for water allocation?
6. So, you’re frugal. Really frugal. What do you spend your money on?
7. We’re almost out of time. Any last things you’d like to tell the committee? (This was the closing)

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WINNING QUALITIES
How did I win? I really don’t know (after the interview, I felt like I didn’t get it, but had a great sense of Satori) , but here are some possible reasons:

• Humor (mentioned that I spend money on NPR and Fantasy Congress)
• Specificity (I showed current events knowledge on water)
• Turning the interview into a dialogue (when asked initially how I was doing, I said fine, and then asked how everyone else was doing; I wanted to convince these panelists to believe in my cause);
• Relaxation and confidence (perhaps both faked, but I think that always helps), may be some outspokeness (without being rude)
• lastly thoughtfulness (use your brain, it’s your best asset).

- You can do this. There is a reason you’re a finalist. You should be ready for the interview. Most of the time, the people who win are shocked because they think the person next to them should have won. At this level you need to go in thinking that you have nothing to lose because you don’t. You’re special (not in the way your mother always told you), but really you are someone who cares about the state of the world and wants to make it better. Winning a scholarship won’t change that part of you.

- In the future, if you would like to reach me, feel free to e-mail me at Andrew-aet-andrewlee[doet]com. Hope this helped and good luck.

Below is a write-up from a fellow 2006 Truman Scholar- Rachel Ackoff:

Read this doc on Scribd: 2006 Truman Debrief by Rachel Ackoff

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