BITS Pilani Students’ Interview Experiences

BITS, Pilani admission to its UG courses is based on academic performance and entrance exam scores. Except for BTech, all other UG courses accept admission on the basis of Class 12 performance (exclusively). BITS, Pilani admission to its MBA programme is done on the basis of national-level entrance exam scores.

BITS, Pilani offers UG courses in various specialisations of Engineering, Design, Management & Science. Admission to these programmes depends on the academic merit of students and PI (Personal Interview). However, some courses do accept the admission of a candidate based on entrance exam results.

The college interview is a general part of the college admission application process at various colleges, but not all of them. You might reach college and converse with someone in the admission cell, a living student or an alumnus. Or you may be able to appear in a video interview.

How to Prepare

Firstly, you need to find out if you have been selected for an interview if it's optional or not offered at all. If you’ve been shortlisted for an interview, go to the college’s site or reach out to someone in our college’s admission office to find out what you must do to set an interview up.

If you have to travel to the college for an interview, you may also want to schedule a campus tour ahead of time for the same trip.

After reaching for the scheduled interview, you can do several things to prepare. One important thing is to research and know about the college so you are ready to talk about why this college is a good fit for you.

More interview tips

You really can’t fail or pass the interview, but you can definitely make a good impression to interviewers by keeping in mind the following:

• Dress decently, preferably formals.
• Arrive soon.
• Be polite.
• Keep the tone of language formal
• Avoid being arrogant, be confident
• Honestly answer the questions asked

Duration of the Interview

The PI for BITS, Pilani could go over 15-30 minutes on average, including minor breaks if needed. The initial 2 minutes are an ice breaker. The next 5-6 minutes generally revolve around your core skills- Engineering/ Sciences/Management etc. The depth of discussions can vary between from asking about the candidate’s projects to discussing about their interests and asking them about their aspirations and future projects. Thus, one need to be prepared thoroughly with at least few of the topics of their strength from your graduation. This is true even for people who have had working experience of 2+ years in a completely different field of study.

The following 5-8 minutes are mostly concerned around current affairs. The interview panel picks a topic and want you to have a discussion. This is the deal breaker part of an interview!

The last 2 minutes are some basic behavioural questions.

Personal Interview for B. Tech candidates

The sub-fields of engineering are dynamic and rich, ranging from high-growth futures (careers) in software developments. At all levels of academic achievement, engineering programs may request a candidate interview as part of the admissions process.

-Interview for B. Tech candidates are conducted by HOD, subject teacher and maybe a current studying student or an alumni

Common questions asked:

• Tell me about yourself
• How did you hear about this college?
• What do you know about our school?
• Why did you choose this college?

Topics discussed:

• Computer programming
• Web 3.0
• cryptocurrency

Personal Interview for MBA candidates

For MBA admission at BITS Pilani, applying candidates have to appear in Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds of the Bachelor Schools. Preparing for an MBA entrance exams might not be as unexpected and random as preparing for PI/GD because every exam has a very different syllabus, thus questions might be asked to the candidate. One only needs to spend couple of months preparing and covering the whole monumental length of exam syllabus. However, for GD/PI rounds there is no syllabus and no pattern. Candidates may be given any impromptu topic in a GD and asked any question of any kind during the PI round.

-Interview for MBA candidates are conducted by HOD, subject teacher and maybe a current studying student or an alumni

Common questions asked,

• Walk me through your resume/profile.
• How will you contribute to the campus if we choose you?
• How will you add value to the campus if chosen?
• What is your expectation from this MBA programme?
• How do you deal with failures?
• How do you deal with criticism?

Topics discussed

• Will fake news kill Social Fibre of India if unchecked?
• Can India afford investing in the projects like Mars Mission?
• Would De-Nuclearisation bring about World Peace?
• Why Individual Data Privacy is important?

Questions asked in BITS Pilani interview for international students’ admission (ISA)?

Before the release of admission offers, a formal but casual interview might be taken over a phone call to inquire about the following:

1. Where are you from?
2. How did you acquire this nationality?
3. How long have you stayed there or anywhere else after that?
4. What was your SAT I and SAT II score?
5. Which centres did you write in?
6. Which school do you study in?
7. From which board are you taking your qualifying examination?
8. Which course did you opt for?
9. Why was it your priority?
10. Give any instance of extra activity you have taken that attracted you towards this course?

Note:

• The interview is very casual.
• You do not need to be tense.
• You better be inside a closed room or in your comfort zone.
• Have your application form ready with you.
• It would be better to have your list of extracurricular activities ready with you (Exceptional Talent).
• Better to list some activities/workshops/ events related to STEM.
• If you can’t list any, just talk about your school clubs and innovation camps

About the Author:

Abhijeet Singh is pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science from AIET Jaipur. He delves into various fields and believes to be a jack of all trades.