General Guidelines
Each interview with a potential Communications Fellow should be treated as a conversation. It’s important to try to establish a rapport; do your best to make the applicant feel comfortable. The questions at the bottom of this form provide a suggested framework.
While you talk with the candidates, please keep in mind the following four categories.
- Level of interest in sport management
- Depth of experience in sport management
- Level of personal maturity
- Level of curiosity about the world in general
At the end, summarize your scores from the above four categories into one final score. This score should represent the candidate’s “Potential for success as a Communications Fellow.” That’s the score you will enter into the system.
**Very important: Please take notes on each candidate and provide comments with your final evaluation. These comments often help us distinguish between very similar candidates. If there’s an aspect about the candidate that sticks out (for better or for worse), please mention it.
Scoring Scale
A rating of 10 is considered exceptional, a rating of 5 is considered average and a rating of 1 is considered absent/unacceptable, etc. Please save your 10s for the truly extraordinary candidates.
8-10 Exceptional (far above average)
These candidates should be able to provide reflective and astute responses. They should have the potential to lead and be curious. In general, you should be able to see them as emerging leaders, reflective and thoughtful and grounded in their academic and intellectual pursuits. These are the type of students you want in your classroom who will complement and provide an enriching atmosphere.
4-7 Acceptable (average – typical in your experience)
These candidates should portray solid academic ability and motivation to succeed here at Elon. They should have thoughtful responses to the questions and reflect intellectual curiosity along with the ability to adapt. You should see them as individuals who can contribute to the program as a team player. You should see them as confident and articulate individuals who can adapt as they grow with the program.
1-3 Not Acceptable (well below average)
These candidates will offer conventional and weak answers during the interview with no unique insight. They do not readily expand on the conversation or idea and seem less curious. They appear to you as the ones that are less capable of handling academic challenge and are less mature and seem to perhaps have a definitive answer for everything or alternatively appear very unsure.
Suggested Interview Questions
Below are suggested (emphasis on suggested) interview questions/topics that may help you evaluate each candidate. Feel free to use them or to develop your own:
- Why are you interested in Elon’s Department of Sport Management?
- What sport related experiences have you had?
- Who do you admire in the sport world?
- What kind of sports do you watch? Follow? Play?
- Ask the student about NIL or Barstool or the MLB lockout or another important trend and see how they answer. Try to connect the trend to the student’s interest.
Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. Hopefully you will be rewarded with smart and self-motivated students in your classes.