Interviews

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

Hello,
My daughter has options of doing a local interview before the boarding school’s (CT) Reception at our city (CA) or going to Connecticut to visit school and then interview (We visited the school in past summer). Local interview will take place in September. Onsite interview will be in December (out plan). Couple of questions though:

  1. Does the time (September vs. December) make any difference in committee’s discussion?
  2. I was told by the admission office that local interview involves student only while onsite interview also involves talking with parents. Does this impact committee’s consideration?
2

Neither of your concerns affect the admissions decision. FWIW, our son interviewed with an alum at our local Starbucks and did not step foot on the Choate campus until revisit days. By graduation, we still hadn’t seen the inside of the admissions office. No parent interviews either. The purpose of those, though, is to give you an opportunity to get your questions answered firsthand, but e-mail and phone work just as well.

Many people feel that interviewing on campus with an AO who may possibly advocate for the applicant is advantageous but, based on our experience and the stories shared here over the years, I haven’t seen that borne out. Do what works for your family and don’t give it another thought.

3

Agree with @ChoatieMom. IMO, the importance of visiting the school has already been accomplished. The off site interview will be fine. MOST importantly (to me) is to have your child practice interviewing with an adult. You can Google prep school interview questions. The point is not to memorize answers, but to get comfortable talking about her ECs, academics, and interests. The advice I have given is keep in mind 3-5 experiences you want to share and practice how to get them out even when not asked directly. Young people (I interview a lot of college grads and have gone through the process with several boarding school applicants) feel off when it comes to talking about themselves until they have experience. No different from practicing for SSATs.