Help with off-campus interviews

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I have just scheduled a very short-notice interview with an off-campus representative from a school. Short-notice as in tomorrow. My parents didn't want to have to travel all the way to the campus, considering I visited last year. However, I have several questions about off-campus interviews.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What should I wear? Formal? Casual? Follow the dress code?</p></li>
<li><p>Will my parents be needed to answer questions?</p></li>
<li><p>I know this topic is sort of ambiguous on this forum, but are off-campus interviews considered "seriously" by admission officers? I would be interviewing with people who aren't admission officers, so when it comes time to make decisions, it would be impossible for me to have an admission officer sitting there saying, "Ballerina22 really stood out in her interview. I want to root for her." Thoughts?</p></li>
<li><p>Any advice from people who have done an off-campus interview?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks so much. I'm pretty clueless right now.</p>

2

<p>Not to worry, ballerina. Off-campus interviews are taken just as seriously as on-campus interviews or the schools wouldn’t bother to do them. Our son interviewed with a Choate alum at a local Starbucks. He dressed “business casual”, meaning neat and clean (khakis and polo), and we spoke briefly with the alum when we picked DS up. The alum did not have any questions for us, but we had a couple of questions for him that he answered over the course of a nice but brief chat.</p>

<p>Treat the interview as you would if you were in the admin office. Don’t worry too much about what to wear. If the school has a dress code, it wouldn’t hurt to dress within those guidelines. Remember, the interviewer is trying to decide how well you fit the school/campus; don’t let your clothes distract from that picture.</p>

3

<p>Okay. So for Deerfield, a conservative skirt, black sweater, and nice flats should suffice, right?</p>