<p>My daughter had a Skype interview with the head of admissions at a school on the east coast today and it was very short. I was at work in the other room and I could hear part of it. After the interview, I got an email from the interviewer where he thought she was rude and said she didn't want to go to boarding school and her parents were making her do this, so rather than it being a waste of time, he called the interview off and she agreed . I am not sure what transpired, it did not seem like that to me from the other room (where I was on the phone myself) and I certainly know that it did not seem like that to me, nor that she would say something like that. I truly think that there was some sort of misunderstanding/miscommunication and she was left feeling very confused about the whole thing. She is ecstatic about applying to these schools and I know there is more to this than that.</p>
<p>What can I do at this point to pull this out of the fire? Anything?</p>
<p>It does seem hard to really hit the rewind button on this. I guess it’s not quite clear what your D’s version of the event is? Even moving on, it’s probably a good idea to try to figure out how this happened–if she didn’t say she wasn’t interested or that her parents were making her apply, what DID she say that was so misconstrued? It just seems like maybe talking through what happened and how she answered questions would be useful before another interview. If it’s really clear to you she was misunderstood, and she’s really interested in the school, I think the only thing you could do is actually have your DAUGHTER contact the AO-- but, actually, I think honestly that’s not likely to work. So maybe just use it as an opportunity to talk to her about interviews and let her think about how she might answer questions more clearly. I don’t think you want practiced answers in an interview, but if she really didn’t mean to give that “uninterested” impression, maybe just brainstorm potential questions so she can think about them ahead a little bit.</p>
<p>In general, I am afraid that it would be very hard to reverse the situation in your favor. </p>
<p>But check with your daughter first and try to get what really happened during the interview. I am not saying your daughter was hiding something about the interview but just check if possible exactly what words were exchanged and how, before the detailed memory goes away from your daughter. It is better, if you want to do something to the AD, to know exact words used during the interview. I think it can happen more frequently and easily during the Skype interview than the normal face-to-face interview. </p>
<p>After getting to know what exactly happened, you might be better able to understand why and how it happened. Then contact the AD and clear his misunderstanding if any.</p>
<p>I did hear most of her part of the interview. I think for some reason, based on the situation (I was at work in the next room making noise) and her sister was not being as good as she could have been. And to be honest this is one of the schools that she is less familiar with as they didn’t send any view books or anything. I think that he caught her off guard at the very beginning and she was never able to recover. I heard some awkwardness, but the words that he said she said “that she didn’t want to go to boarding school…” was not something I heard her say (with my one ear), nor would it be something she said in all seriousness. It truly seems like he didn’t get her sense of humor or something.</p>
<p>Did she deny saying those words? Have you asked her what she said? For the future…if she’s unfamiliar with a school (you don’t need a view book)…have her read their website thoroughly, search the school on this site, YouTube has many video tours posted by the schools themselves. It’s what we had our daughter do (and I did) before we visited any school. If we had a Skype interview, this research really helped if we were unable to visit the school. </p>
<p>Btw I was in the other room while my daughter had a Skype interview and I heard about 1/4 of the conversation and still couldn’t really hear perfectly. I’d sit and talk with her just to make sure you are clear on her side of the story.</p>
<p>I agree that it must be your daughter that fixes this. You can coach her, of course. I’d encourage her to call the dude back and say that she was flustered and blew it but did not sant to end the interview but just acquiesced when he suggested the interview stop. She should then say," look, can we reschedule. I really want to make this work." Or something like that.</p>
<p>It may go nowhere, but at least she will have tried and will gain experience fixing mistakes and miscommunications.</p>
<p>Good luck. It sound like a very unfortunate situation.</p>
<p>I agree that one of you should call the admissions office and try to talk to the admissions director about what exactly happened. Admissions offices are busy right now gearing up for reviewing applications, but the AD should be able to make time for a phone call about something like this. When you call the office, explain to the staff person that a Skype interview went horribly wrong but that you think it’s due to some misunderstanding, and would like to talk to the interviewer. </p>
<p>Ideally your daughter should make the call, but it may be difficult for her to call at a time when the director is available to talk (probably first thing in the morning). Since the director emailed you, I’d say it’s fine for you to call. Even if you can’t fix it, you still want to hear what happened from the AD’s point of view.</p>
<p>Hmm, I would leave it to your daughter to attempt to fix this. If she really wants to go to bs and is interested in this particular school, she will either follow through and contact the AO, or handle subsequent interviews at other schools differently. </p>
<p>I’d also have a heart to heart, and make it clear that you want to hear her honest thoughts about bs, assuring her that you won’t be disappointed one way or the other.</p>
<p>I think there’s probably no hope of salvaging her chances at that particular school. Even if it turns out it was a big misunderstanding on the AD’s part, he’s still going to be left thinking that she doesn’t communicate well and not have a good vibe about her. If I were you, I’d be a lot more interested in learning what went wrong so as to make sure it doesn’t happen again elsewhere. Since he emailed you to tell you how poorly the interview went, I would call him and ask to discuss it, just you can understand in what way she was rude to him. I would not try to defend or explain what you think she actually meant, beyond saying that you’re genuinely baffled by this as you know she really does want to go to BS and that’s why you want to understand from him more specifically what she said so you can get to the bottom of it with her.</p>