<p>I am applying and I would like to know what is the range of acceptable scores?<br>
ANy anyone have a genuine perspective about schools like Riverdale, Trinity, FIeldston, Spence, Chapin? Any interview advice?</p>
<p>You will probably be better off asking this in the Prep School sub-forum.</p>
<p>the website probably has their range scores but probably 8s or above would be fine</p>
<p>hmmm. the prep school forum seems to focus mainly on boarding schools. THe schools in my post are day schools.</p>
<p>Be careful looking at past scores; the ISEE was weirdly revamped last year and produced some odd results…I’m not sure exactly how they are scaled but apparently it will take a few years for it to straighten itself out…</p>
<p>You can try to find the article online from last year that explained the glitch…</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>@bellebee,
An interview at a private high school isn’t as bad as it seems. Just go in there, and answer their questions honestly. Just a few tips before you go to any interviews:</p>
<p>1) Schedule your first interviews with a school you don’t really want to go to/a school that’s near the bottom of your list. This way, if you screw up, it won’t really matter. This is a huge mistake I made.</p>
<p>2) Know what your parents do for a living. Interviewers WILL ask this, and ask you about your family. You better have an answer.</p>
<p>3) Some interviewers will ask you about current events. My friend got asked about politics at an interview at SPS.</p>
<p>4) Some interviewers will ask you what books you’ve been reading. Be prepared for this.</p>
<p>5) Some interviewers will ask, “Why do you want to go to (insert school here)?” Be prepared to answer this, and be able to talk about that school specifically.</p>
<p>6) Dress conservatively. I’m a guy, and at every interview I went to, every single guy I saw was at least in a collared shirt. Most were in shirts and ties and wore a jacket. If you’re a guy, I’d recommend wearing a white shirt, tie, and nice jacket. If you’re a girl, I can’t help you. Sorry!</p>
<p>7) If you’re comfortable talking with adults, don’t fret over the interview. It’s not that big of a deal. If you’re not, you should practice a little bit, but not that much. You don’t want to seem coached.</p>
<p>8) If you screw the interview up, don’t worry. It’s not that big of a part of the admission process anyway.</p>
<p>9) You CAN request a specific admission officer to be your interviewer. Go online for the schools you’re interested in, and look at their bios of all their admission officers. Find the one who has interests that match yours, and request them. </p>
<p>10) Search for “Interview” on the Prep School Admissions sub forum. Most of the advice you get there, will serve you well for any interviews.</p>
<p>If you have any questions, PM me. Good luck!</p>
<p>about the interview…if someone interviews with the director of admissions, does that mean the school really is interested in that kid? and if someone interviews with anyone other than the director of admissions, doe that mean the school is only mildly interested?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. As far as I know, that particular person was probably just free/available during your scheduled time frame. Although if you have the director of admissions as your interviewer and you have a superb interview… it must help in some way. </p>
<p>Anyway, all the schools you listed would probably be TT, not so sure about Spence but it should be up there with Chapin. TT schools generally look for high ISEE scores and good interviews. Contrary to what ifax108 said, I think interviews are the most important part of the application, or at least one of the most important (may be second to essays). It is the only opportunity that the applicant has to meet face-to-face with a representative from the school. Things like a student’s personality, traits, etc. which are difficult to convey with words in an essay are shown through an interview.</p>
<p>Have you looked at Horace Mann or Brearley? Nightingale-Bamford?</p>
<p>Hmmm. From what I’ve heard Fieldston and Spence are VERY different in terms of the student body, although they’re both great schools – but Fieldston seems to be more hipster/etc (or maybe it’s just the kids I know from there…). I never looked at private high schools, though, so unfortunately I don’t have much else to say.</p>
<p>Hi, not brearley but I don’t know how come it wasn’t on our school’s exmission list.<br>
people are crowing about being interviewed by the dir. of admissions because they say it means they are being looked at “with interest” one dir. of admission asked questions but didn’t as questions based on responses…felt like there was no interest in what was being said. idk…I wish there was more information about this. anyone have a stat for it? look at the number of acceptances and compare who did the interview.<br>
anyone have any information or opinions about Chapin or Spence as in current information? what about the workload at Riverdale?</p>
<p>what specifically do you need answered about chapin spence? Riverdale had an overwhelming amount of hw given a few (5/6) years back but has since changed headmasters and has steered away from the “busywork”.
it does not matter whether you’ve been interviewed by dir. of admissions or not, the most important interview is with the head of the upper school.
contrary to a previous poster, interviews while being extremely important, are not more important than grades and scores. For instance, most kids that enter one of the schools that double the class for HS, have much higher ssat/issee numbers than the kids that entered that school for K did in ERBs.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of anyone being interviewed by an upper school director. I know sometimes they are present at the family interview, but not with the just the kid. </p>
<p>like all 3 schools, btw, wondering about work loads - know they all have work but don’t want just work to work type of work. thank you.</p>
<p>As all the top City schools they have very stringent standards and you will have to work extremely hard to get top grades. They also expect you (and you will want to) participate in either sports or theater or another art thing. Expect regular days of coming home at 7/8 from a tournament/practice to a 4 hour homework session. Also expect some early morning 7 am practices as well. If you don’t go to Med school, this will be the most exhausting schedule you will ever have in your education. Also expect to work on weekends as well as fit in your ec’s. You will also be amongst the brightest and engaged students and teachers around.</p>