Recently, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) sent an email to all college entrance examination students in the mainland who have applied for the undergraduate admission qualification of HKUST, in which the HKUST clarified the format of this year's undergraduate admissions interview------ that is, with the end of the epidemic, HKUST will resume offline entrance interviews.
Interviews have always been an important means for Hong Kong universities to assess mainland college entrance examination students. Different from mainland universities, which only assess students' college entrance examination results, Hong Kong higher education institutions not only assess the overall scores of mainland college entrance examination students, but also assess students' overall performance in English subjects and interviews.
As we all know, in 2019 and before, the undergraduate entrance interview of HKUST was conducted offline, and during the three years of the epidemic, the interview format had to be changed to online. Now that the epidemic alert has been lifted, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has resumed in-person interviews. Regarding the format, location, and time of the interview, HKUST has made it clear in the email.
The common practice of the HKUST undergraduate entrance interview is that all applicants must report their college entrance examination results in the application system before the time specified by the university. After receiving the results of the college entrance examination reported by the students, HKUST will draw an interview shortlist for each candidate according to the different colleges (Faculty of Science, School of Engineering, Business School and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) and the students' own liberal arts and science subjects. Only after the applicant's college entrance examination score reaches the interview shortlist score will the student be eligible to participate in the undergraduate entrance interview of HKUST. Students who did not meet the interview shortlist were completely absent from the undergraduate degree of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The interview shortlist is as follows:
So are the students shortlisted for the undergraduate admissions interview of HKUST a stable enough to be admitted to HKUST? The answer is no.
The HKUST will use the admission interview to comprehensively assess the applicant's various abilities: for example, the student's English speaking ability, whether the student's knowledge is broad? Can students' critical thinking and logical thinking meet the requirements of the school? Therefore, the students who can finally be admitted to HKUST are a minority after all.
We once made a statistic that HKUST recruits about 180~190 college entrance examination students in the mainland every year, and among all the qualified applicants shortlisted for HKUST interview, only 1/4~1/5 of the applicants can finally be admitted to HKUST's undergraduate admission. Therefore, even if you are shortlisted for the interview, you will face fierce competition from other qualified applicants, and it is not that you will be sure after the shortlisted interview.
HKUST interview questions are not formal, but mainly open-ended questions. Many interview questions are social hot issues, there is no fixed answer and clear unknown right or wrong, and the book knowledge learned in school has almost nothing to do with it, completely relying on students' usual knowledge accumulation and their own thinking ability to put forward their own various views.
The interview was mainly a group discussion, moderated by two HKUST professors, supplemented by individual questions and one-on-one answers. The whole interview is about 35~40 minutes, every 6~8 people are an interview group, during the interview, the professor basically does not intervene, unless some cold and extreme situations occur.
After the interview, successful applicants will receive an undergraduate acceptance letter from HKUST within a maximum of 2-3 days, or even on the night of the interview. Those lucky ones who receive an offer have to choose within one to two days whether to accept undergraduate admission to HKUST? If accepted, a reservation fee of HK$20,000 (which will be used to offset tuition fees in the future) must be paid within a very short period of time (usually one day, up to two days). Once a student pays this retention fee, any batch of colleges and universities in the mainland, including Qiangji, can no longer be admitted, because this is the rule of the game set by the Ministry of Education.
Of course, if you have a better choice, you can reject the undergraduate admission letter from HKUST after receiving it, which will not affect the admission of other Hong Kong universities and mainland universities.
The author has collected the interview questions of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the past ten years, and interested students can send private messages.
If you want to know more about applying for Hong Kong and Macao universities, you can consult by private message or join the QQ group below to learn.
Author: 2023.6.9.Completed in Wuhan Jinyin Lake.