My D22 had an interview with a rep from the school (she may have also been an alum, not sure) and it is a small LAC, well thought of, but not particularly highly ranked. I would agree that a lot of Big State U’s probably don’t do them, but I think they are not that uncommon in smaller schools.
I feel like I have a decent handle on how my D22 comes across to other adults, but I think I am able to be somewhat objective. Definitely get what you mean @CMA22 about how much of her life is becoming her own and moving out of my view, though.
My son accidentally checked a box declining an interview for his first choice school. It didn’t matter. He panicked after 3 weeks when he found that other people are getting calls but he didn’t. Then he found out that he declined. He scrambled and had the GC call the college. They told him not to worry about it. After joining, he talked to many other kids about the interview. Some people told him that they did horribly.
D22 has had quite a few interviews and personal calls — some high stakes, some low. I think all of them have been a really valuable experience. She still gets super nervous speaking before large groups but these 1-1s are getting much easier.
I agree the interviews are really valuable. D22 still gets nervous, too, but the interviews and meetings with Admissions folks have been very helpful. She also has a job which she interviewed for (had several different interviews for different jobs) and in the job she took she has to deal with the public, so she’s learning all kinds of skills around that.
She is a theater kid and when she can channel that she does well with public speaking. I think the interviews make her nervous because she’s unsure about what they want to hear from her, but she does pretty well speaking before her school or performing in a play as long as she knows what she’s supposed to say.
Is anyone else having trouble with Parchment? We sent transcripts to the Common App back in October via Parchment, as required, but we cannot send the updated transcript with fall semester, senior year grades. We filled out all the fields in the order form, just as we did before, but the “Continue” field did not become active. It’s as though we have not filled out a field, even though we double and triple checked that we had, and we get no error message prompting us fill out a missing field.
When we sent a message to Parchment (of course, there is no phone number to reach a human), they replied with an email containing a link to video instructions for ordering transcripts. As expected, the instructions matched what we had already tried a couple times. I sent a return message with screen shots and requesting a human contact us.
The maddening part of this whole process is that we have to send the transcript request through Parchment. Parchment, in turn, sends a request to the registrar at my son’s high school, whom I know personally. When I speak with the registrar, she says she cannot send the transcript without the Parchment request. It is like a scene out of the movie “Brazil”.
Has anyone else run into this? Does anyone know how to get someone’s attention at Parchment?
Yes. I went to “contact support” and requested help. They sent an autoreply with a ticket number, followed by an automatically generated email with the video link.
I’ll try the link you provided. Maybe it guides me down a different path where I am likely to hear from a human.
S20 had a Georgetown interview with an alum whose son was applying that same year. Seemed not cool. D22 has interviewed with students at some LACs. That seemed helpful.
Yes, I think D22 gets the best info when she talks to older friends or friends of friends who attend a school. It is generally more personal and unvarnished than the answers that come from tour guides and alum interviewers.
I also think D22 feels more bold about asking a lot of questions of friends and friend-adjacents.
You can search the Common Data Set for schools and find out how important interviews are to them. I saw the whole range for S22’s. Some schools “considered,” some called them “important,” and a couple that he applied to called them “very important.” I kinda wish I had known which schools valued them more going in. …eh, maybe I don’t. No need to add pressure and the whole point is that they are just themselves.
D had an interview with a t10 and it was by phone, not zoom. She said it was soo much better for her, because she could pace and wiggle around like she does when she’s on the phone with friends.
Doesn’t translate well to job interviews, but she’s sure that was her best one.
S22 just interviewed at not higher-ranked and not-so-big state LAC. His was virtual (which means we could avoid the disaster that is I-95) and he said it went well. He has a great presentation style and is an extrovert so he really needs little prep time.
When my D19 was in her college search, she had portfolio presentations to do for her theatre tech major. She interviewed at most of the schools she applied to. Some of the schools were not higher ranked, but the programs were incredibly competitive.
My son is a complete introvert (it takes quite some time for his personality to come out).
So I was REALLY nervous about these upcoming interviews.
What I didn’t know (since parents aren’t included) was that for every single Boy Scout rank-up, each Scout goes through a ?Review with the Leaders, with the final review for his Eagle Scout. So he’s had “interview” experience since he was ~10yrs old.
He did good on his 1st alum interview for his #1 college, and his 2nd one with a T10 went very well.
I cherish his Scouting experience more and more, for all that it’s benefited my son.
A good friend of mine is a Princeton graduate and she interviews a few local applicants every year and said that basically none of the kids she ever interviewed got admitted.
There is a famous column a Harvard alumni wrote a few years back about the fact that despite interviewing incredible kids none were ever accepted. Probably not surprising when you consider the minuscule acceptance rate - especially for “unhooked” kids.
Thanks for this! I am literally googling best mattress toppers right now!! This was one of the ones listed, but I am also keen on the layla 2” topper. My daughter is skinny and I don’t want her to feel swallowed by the foam. How is your experience with this topper?
I don’t have experience with this particular topper, but it was recommended by parents in the 2021 group last year. I found a tempur-pedic on sale last year so that’s what my D has. She loves it.
