After an underwhelming orientation meeting for our local public high school in December, we started the Boarding School hunt very late. Still got everything done on time but:
Hotchkiss and Choate are among the targets - and the only ones not to require an interview. We’d have been delighted to do them of course, but they were understandably full. Follow up emails and a call confirmed they were still full. (I don’t want to harass these surely slammed officers.)
Does anyone get into Hotchkiss or Choate without doing one? That seems highly unlikely. If you’re on track to get an offer, do AOs call you “mid-read” to do an interview?
Given our daughter’s green thumb and cooking interests, had we known earlier about Hotchkiss’ farm it probably would have been our first visit. (It would have been amusing to track down the farm manager the ways other people ping coaches.) Any ideas to pry open an interview especially there?
I’m a student in my first year applying so take my words with a grain of salt. I imagine that it is very difficult to get in without an interview, because that’s when they can really see what an applicant is like. Some people might seem incredible on paper but come off as arrogant in the interview, whereas an AO might realize how absolutely incredible someone is in person. I don’t know if or how you could get an interview at this point.
If your daughter isn’t admitted, you might want to consider other schools with active farming programs that might be open to late applicants. Midland in California comes to mind, as does Putney (VT) and Orme (AZ) They might even be open to receiving an application at this late date. Give them a call, perhaps?
@DevonAultOrBust I will say, as someone who goes to a school that feeds MANY kids into East Coast boarding schools, I have never heard of ANY student getting into one of the “top” schools without an interview. If the student has a strong likelihood of getting accepted they will most likely call mid-read or set up an alumni/skype interview for the student. I really don’t think there is any way you can convince them to give you an interview as there are already vast waiting lists (particularly at Choate) for students who wanted interviews. There are just simply too many applicants and not enough AOs.
Thanks yeah, no interviews with office or alumni: full. Again, understandable. We’re happy with the other application options, and maybe lightning will strike at H or C. If it does I’ll share it with the forum.
