Fulbright Interview for PhD at Islamabad Pakistan

I reached the US Education Foundation Office (Pakistan) in Islamabad at 7:45 am, 15 minutes ahead of scheduled time.  But the guards asked us, some other candidates and myself, to wait for some time. 15-20 minutes later they let us in with security check and visitor registration.

Outside I met Noreen Yaqoob, my batch mate. She told me she was also shortlisted for PhD interview. She had her interest in tax reforms. We had a good conversation; catching up on what each of us was doing; and where the department was going. She confirmed Pakistan Revenue Service has been notified now.

All candidates were ushered into the library hall. They first gave us a form asking us if we had any relatives in the US. Second, they gave us a blank sheet for putting our reflections on a topic. I was given a topic on ''how I will use one of my academic lessons to help my mom learn something''. Pretty unexpected kind of topic. But I was glad; it was not something that required deep thought. I instantly thought of relevance of economics - allocation of scarce resources against competing demands. I used the lesson for helping my mom with the monthly expenditure for the family. We were given just ten minutes to finish up writing. Later, they took a snap shot of each candidate. Finally, candidates were being called for interview up stairs where the interview committee was seated in a separate room.

The committee consisted of five members. They were : Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki, Juris Consultant, Federal Shariah Court (Supreme Court of Pakistan); Dr. Shaheena Ayub Bhatti, Associate Professor, Department of English (National Univeristy of Modern Languages, NIML); Dr. Mahmood H. Butt, Vice Chancellor (Allama Iqbal Open University); Dr. S.M. Raza, Advisor, HRD (Higher Education Commission, HEC); and Dr. Grace C. Clark, Executive Director, US Education Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP).

Dr. Clark welcomed me on my entry into the room. I thanked them back for extending an opportunity. She started with comments on my 'attempt at using economics lesson in helping my mom with her monthly family budget'. She admired my approach. So it was a good beginning.

During the interview, only Dr. Clark and one other gentleman, perhaps Dr. Butt ( name tags were not available), engaged me in discussion. They touched public policy concepts,  education management reforms, significance of the day ( international literacy day today),literacy and its challenges with respect to Pakistan, relevance of my gradation (engineering) with public policy courses.  I missed one question however regarding the main theorists of public policy. Overall my assessment of the interview was that it ended on a positive note. I assume I have a good chance for making it to the final list. Let's see what happens.

I had earlier not sent my online application to fulbright which I was required to before the interview. I had emailed them I was having problems. The staff helped me with it, and I was able to finally send it through. Hence all done. They told me if they required anything else, they would inform me.

One of the USEF Staff advised us to seek help from them for applying directly to the US universities and obtain scholarship, as a back up plan in case we can't make it to the final list. He advised us to get ourselves registered with the USEF Pakistan online. In return, they will provide each one of us an advisor who will help and guide us in this endeavor. He also told us that we might even be invited to workshops/seminars sometimes.

Overall my visit to the USEF Pakistan went well.

On my return to hotel, Noreen called me and shared that her interview did not go well. My view point on her assessment was that sometimes we make wrong assessments and should not be disappointed.