To all active contributors to this forum, I am IMMENSELY grateful. You are human instruments used by the Almighty to bolster the birthing of dreams into realities and for some, set their destinies on course.
The shared embassy experiences and the proffered tidbits on acing the visa interview came very handy to me albeit I just recently became a follower —a ghost follower actually– about 2 to 3 weeks ago. I started following this forum and checked out your various submissions (from as far back as ever) after the friend who I reached out to for help on how to properly prepare for the interview apprised me of this forum and so far, empirically and from perusal of almost all the transcripts of this forum relating to visa interview, I can state that this forum ab initio, is a repository of profound knowledge for all and sundry on acing the US F1 visa interview. But, it will be remiss of me to not mention that in spite of a thoroughgoing preparation on my part, the God factor which was very palpable in the turn of events made it all pan out. The God factor can’t be dismissed with the wave of a hand in these matters; or in any matter for that matter! He came through for me and I am ineffably thankful to Him!
This is how my interview went yesterday:
Me: Good morning!
VO: Good morning! Please pass your international passport, passport photograph, DS160 confirmation page, SEVIS fee receipt and I-20 to me. (They were already put together by the lady who did my biometrics)
Me: *I passed it*
VO: So, *reading from his monitor* (he mentioned my first name)…How did you hear about this school?
Me: While preparing for my undergraduate research, I had access to some of their papers which proved to be very invaluable. Thereafter, I went to the school's website to learn more about the school and I was impressed by the quality of their faculty.
VO: What will be your specialization?
Me: told him
VO: I can see you are pursuing a doctorate degree… Have you done your masters?
Me: No, but would be getting it along the way. *someone else just said no, and his V.O. was like “are you going for PhD straight without a masters?”* I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation on that because I was next on the queue and needed to stop my “amebo” to listen to the next available window to go to. What I am saying in essence is that, for PhD guys, putting the “would be getting my masters along the way” may extinguish chances for further probe. Not sure about this #JustSaying.
V.O: Did you write any test to get this?
Me: Yes, GRE!
V.O: Can I see it?
Me: Sure! I passed it to him (But before he could look at it, he suddenly came to the realization that I got a graduate fellowship. He held the GRE score report in his hand but never looked at it; thankfully!!) *I couldn’t find the original copy of my GRE score report that contained only the last two schools I applied to. The copy, printed from my GRE account, which I went with, contains all the 8 schools I had applied to over the years. The scholarship I got is for chemical engineering but 6 out of the 8 schools in total that I had applied to from 2012 to 2014 were for petroleum engineering. I just felt that he becoming aware of it may have culminated in or warranted a lot of other questions that could turn everything on its head and make the interview go awry for me. God-factor!
V.O: So you got a graduate fellowship?
Me: Yes!
V.O: What will be your duty at the school to sustain or keep it?
Me: Don’t know exactly… Nothing
V.O: Did you just say nothing? (*he looked curious* I just immediately perceived that that answer is wrong or unacceptable as evidenced by his change in countenance). *I honestly don’t know, with exactness, what I would be doing to keep it while there*.
Me: Ok, I really didn’t get the question. Can you please ask the question again? (I said this while mentally weaving up an intelligible answer)
V.O: *He asked again*
Me: oh…I will be assisting with the grading of papers and scores and stuffs like that… graduate assistant duties.
V.O: oh… ok!... When did you graduate?
Me: Told him
V.O: From which university?
Me: Told him (I went blank for a moment here grappling to remember. I was completely flustered by the hiccup or hitch I had some seconds earlier).
VO: Who will be supplying the remaining funds?
Me: My father.
VO: What does he do?
Me: Told him
VO: Hmm. OK your visa is approved.
My flow wasn’t really smooth because I stuttered through some part of it. I think being smooth doesn’t really matter, making sense does. Almost all who got their visas approved while I was on the queue waiting for my interview appeared prepared for the questions they were asked and gave answers that made sense. Please prepare well and pray very well too…listen attentively and give coherent or sensible answers. While on the queue, I was able to successfully predict two people that would get rejected because of their answers. A guy asked the V.O. interviewing him to repeat a particular question three times. The V.O. later said don’t worry! Imagine! That already spelled trouble to me because you can’t answer a question you didn’t hear or understand. Another guy was asked why he chose the US, he said because he has uncles that can support him in the US. Now, any ardent follower of this forum would know that such answer portends trouble for the interviewee.
You can copy the answers that truthfully fit your case from all that has been submitted in this forum. I wish others yet to do their interviews the very best! And trust me, it isn’t as scary as people think.
Regards

P.S.: Personally, judging from facial expression and tone of voice, the guy that interviewed me and the lady to his right were the easiest to talk to among all of them. The smile on his face and his friendly tone of voice did a lot to calm my nerves at the beginning. Well, I guess that is also the G-factor at work.