How much weight do you think the interview holds in the admissions process?

Prep School Admissions
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<p>An experienced interviewer can find reasons to reject a candidate in 15 minutes. I wonder the value of interviews other than to weed out the troublesome parents or socially immature students who might struggle in BS. If so, think of all the wasted efforts of those culled very early in the process only to find out on M10.</p>

<p>In 15 minutes, wouldn’t it all about the smile, firm handshake, establishing rapport with an adult interviewer, demonstrating knowledge/commitment of and to the school (yield concerns), and generally showing a fit with the school’s culture…?</p>

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<p>My two kids had a combined 20 interviews at 14 different schools. I would say only one was as short as 15 minutes and that was at a school that after about 3 minutes into the tour we all knew it was not a good fit for my son and clearly the interviewer did too as he was the only one who did not say “I hope to see your son’s application” or something like that. I think he said “I’m sure your son will do really well where ever he attends.” </p>

<p>Anyway…
I know that interviews help greatly in the waitlist arena. At least one school where my explained to me that for them when an opening comes up the admissions staff meets and they basically “fight” for their candidates. The more they are in your corner, the better your chances. My kids interviews at that school were at least 45 minutes, so they did get to know them a bit. </p>

<p>It’s very different for college where many (most?) colleges don’t require and many don’t even offer interview opportunities.</p>

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<p>All you have to do to ensure a good interview is not come off as a socially awkward jerk.</p>

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<p>One question they asked my kids in almost every interview was why did they want to apply to a boarding school (vs. day). Now this MAY be common to all, but in our case it is because we live in day-student distance from 2-3 really great schools.<br>
The answer, of course, was that it was not about boarding our day but about finding the school that was the best fit. </p>

<p>As others have said, they want to “weed out” the kids who are being “pushed” into it by their parents. </p>

<p>My son is a natural interviewer. If interviews got you accepted, he’d be at Harvard. My daughter was much more nervous and felt more awkward but they both did well becuase the admins are experienced in getting the kids to open up, relax and be themselves. My son’s “worst” was at a school where the admin was “odd” (son’s words) and in the parent interview part, he was - WE had to get HIM talking. It was kind of uncomfortable even for us.</p>

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I agree. There was a post last year about Amherst College and the story that NPR (I think) did about their admissions process - and something like the director really wanted a candidate and the others did not, so 10 seconds of discussion it went in the no pile and they moved on and the quote from the director was something like “that’s a mistake.” But it still went in the no pile.</p>

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<p>Actually, there’s no need for that. But thanks. The fact of the matter is that he ended up at a great place and had an amazing experience. The school that zinged him based on the interview was very probably right in reaching the decision they reached. And the AO who was in contact with us throughout the admission process was genuinely interested in my son and, partly through that AO’s efforts, helped get a generous FA package for son (well, okay, us). In a sense, that awful interview he had wound up paying for itself many times over!</p>

<p>One thing you have to understand now and file away to remind yourself in about 10 days’ time, is that all the things you think you know now are very likely to be rearranged and turned on their ear…and it’s not because it’s bad. There’s a tendency to want to collect as many brass rings as possible so you can have the luxury of choosing. There’s a certain (understandable) arrogance that goes with that thinking: the implicit belief that you (or your family unit) are best qualified to make the right choice. If your options are limited, there’s cause to celebrate because expert people have added their input into your decision and they have foreclosed some choices that, in the long run, may not be as terrific as you might believe they are today. Embrace the possibility that the unexpected situation you may find yourself in on March 11 (or so) is something you can work with. Good luck – whatever that may mean!</p>

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<p>Can a poor interview alone kill an otherwise excellent application? </p>

<p>I wonder what the interview report looks like:</p>

<p>Obviously it varies by school, so In general: Something like this? </p>

<p>* </p>

<p>Overall score (1–10) </p>

<p>(1, reject… 10. Highly recommended for acceptance)</p>

<ol>
<li>Maturity (1-10)</li>
<li>Fit (1-10)</li>
</ol>

<p>…</p>

<p>comments:</p>

<p>*</p>

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<p>Goodness - I would certainly hope so!</p>

<p>For all the reasons already mentioned - including poor fit for the school or an applicant being pressured to apply by his parents. The interview is also one of the key points in the process where the admissions committee might be able to detect a disconnect between the real life kid and the “kid with lots of adult help” who wrote the application. If the applicant’s references aren’t helpful (for whatever reason), the interview might be the only time to discover that the applicant is not quite who he appears to be on paper.</p>

<p>Schools aren’t just looking for high scores and well-written essays. As is so often repeated, they are looking for “nice” kids . . . and it probably doesn’t hurt if the kid actually has a personality!</p>

<p>(See [this</a> recent post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13934756-post51.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13934756-post51.html) by ExieMITAlum for further discussion of the “personality factor.”)</p>

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<p>Clearly, the answer has to be “yes.”</p>

<p>Interviewer: What are your hobbies?
**
Applicant:* Frying snails under my magnifying glass.</p>

<p>Interviewer: You think that’s fun?</p>

<p>Applicant: Oh, no. That’s gross. The fun part is when I put the stew in my teachers’ desks and see their reaction!*</p>

<p>dodgersmom is right. It doesn’t have to be the kind of extreme situation that I described; it can just a matter of figuring out that the student doesn’t fit at that particular school.</p>

<p>But I should add the caveat that what a parent might consider to be a “poor interview” may not be the kind of interview that kills an application. As dodgersmom’s post suggests, there can be perfectly “good” interviews that seal the fates of some applicants. Some would consider that to be a “poor” interview – just because the Admission Officer concludes that the applicant would not get along well at the school. But in many respects that should be considered a “good” interview if the applicant was being himself or herself and the admission officer reach a well-informed conclusion.</p>

<p>If, by “poor interview” you’re referring to a kid getting sweaty palms, stumbling over words, misspeaking (by way of professing love for the school that s/he visited in the morning)…and other forms of jitters, then I think it’s harder to write off an applicant on the basis of the interview. I think admission officers realize that sometimes they don’t catch kids on their best days.</p>

<p>For the most part, though, I don’t think admissions officers look at the application process the way parents do. Parents are focused on the things that the admission officer will seize on to reject their child. I don’t think admission officers are trying to ferret out all the warts and Achilles’ Heels of applicants. To the contrary, I think the process of setting an incoming class is more about drawing out affirmative qualities and building a case for each student. It’s natural to imagine that an admission officer, besieged by mountains of applications for a limited number of seats/beds, will want to find justifications to slim down the pool to a manageable size. I suspect, however, that such a process, in practice, would lead to a really REALLY crappy incoming class.</p>

<p>The process of investing resources looking for flaws results in a class of students that aren’t fatally flawed as far as the admission office can see. The process of investing resources looking for the applicants’ merits results in a class of the most interesting and fascinating kids chosen from a pool of interesting and fascinating kids. Most of these admission officers live on campus so they’re selecting the kids that will be living within their small community for the next 3-4 years. It’s true they don’t want psychopaths in their midst (that comes out in the teacher and guidance counselor reports)…but they mostly want people who are interesting, not the ones they couldn’t find reasons to reject.</p>

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<p>The interveiw with my son at the school that was not a good fit…we all knew it! The interviewer knew it in 15 minutes with him. He didn’t answer the questions differently, the comments about his maturity and ease with adults was the same.<br>
But there was just something that was evident. Now fortunatly, we saw it too, but had we now seen it, the admin did. Nothing my son said “wrong” just not the right school.</p>

<p>Interestingly, that same day in the afternoon we went to the school he ended up attending and as soon as we walked on campus we knew it was the right place. Just as we knew so quickly the other one was wrong. It wasn’t that clear with my daughter but sure was with him.</p>

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<p>Not sure how schools or parents/applicants define the concept of fit. We went through this process and thought our S will fit into any of them. For schools, does the concept of fit at odds with the diversity? Do they want the same kinds of kids? For parents, do you want to challenge your kids to get along well with different kinds of peers… That is the social skill they have to learn to step into the society.</p>

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<p>For us it was how we “felt” it is an intangible. We felt uncomfortable walking around campus A. It had 800’ish students, about half day. Very casual environment. It felt institutional. Yet we know students there (and parents who post here) who love it, it’s a great school, just not right for us.</p>

<p>School B - felt “homey” every student we passed said hello to us - even when no student of staff memeber from the school was with us. It was smaller, both in number of students and physical campus. It was more formal. Had sit down meals. </p>

<p>Add School C - where there is no structured “study hall” - only “suggested study times” and that will either work or not for a student. </p>

<p>It’s the “culture” of the school. Look at their yearbook when you are waiting, or the school newspaper. It gives you, as parents an idea of what kids of clubs there are (beyond the list online, which may or may not be accurate).</p>

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<p>Wow, I’d just like to thank everyone here for all of their informative answers…This is rather awesome.
I’m getting a much better sense of what the essence of the interview really is.
:)</p>