When is the best time to schedule boarding school / prep school visits?
Do the schools allow summer visits?
Depends on the school. Some do, some don’t. Although IMO, summer visits are less than ideal since there are no students on campus.
In the Fall before the weather turns nasty, although appointments book very quickly, so the sooner you call, the better the chance of getting the dates you want. Although a winter visit does show the reality of the campus in the midst of less than ideal weather.
Last spring we scheduled a number of unofficial trips to schools in order for DS to see the campuses, as well as meet with coaches and teachers in certain areas of interest. These visits were extremely important in helping narrow down the list of school to which he applied to as well as letting the schools know of his interest in the them. We started by contacting coaches directly and set up a time to meet with them. Once a day was picked, we then contacted others to see if they were also available to meet with U.S. on the same day. This process worked very well and allowed him to only focus on officials tours, interviews and admissions applications to his top four schools during the fall.
So if you visit in Spring, will they interview also, or is it too early? We live in FL currently and applying to schools in northeast. I’m thinking if we visited this spring, then he could do skype interviews in the fall, does that sound fine, or would they require us to come again in the fall?
Most schools do offer interviews via Skype or with Alumni in your area during the fall so returning to campus in the fall might not be required, but that being said most do not offer official interviews in the spring.
DC did NOT enjoy the one Skype interview that was done and felt much more comfortable face to face. But that might just be a matter of personal preference.
Planning/scheduling and visiting ahead as @BigBlueSwim did is HIGHLY recommended if you have any inclination that BS is the way your DC wants to go. Our family, on the other hand, started the whole process in late fall when DC realized that local options were not as desirable as previously thought. The rush with which we had to learn about the schools and select which ones to visit and schedule interviews and tours for was quite stressful.
My DD just went through the process and I can share with you what was most helpful to us:
- We went in the late fall/early winter , while it was not warm but also no inclement weather, kids were pretty settled in and adjusted to the campus and routine.
- We did not do any skype interviews, we did all face to face. Our logic is that if international students can fly clear across the country to interview and tour we can surely drive a few hours. We feel that it shows effort.
-Since we did visit and apply to 12 schools, we tried to get at least 2 schools scheduled during the visit. Four was the most we did in an extended weekend.
- We looked for schools that we were interested in that had shadowing days. It gives you and your child a early impression of exactly what a day was like very early on in the process, even before application.
We also found that my DD school had no problem with her absence if I got a not of attendance from the schools we visited and she contacted friends while on the road to get and complete assignments. She was not marked absent unless I did not get a note.
I hope this was helpful.
For both of my kids, we did face to face interviews only. For 7D1, we initially visited a few schools in Summer (as part of New England vacation)…and then visited them again in the Fall when school was in session. I agree with comments above that Summer visits can be less than ideal because there are no students on campus…however, I think the upside is that the AOs have fewer people to deal with and can (at least in our experience) spend more time with you vs. say, Columbus Day Weekend. <---- IMO, the WORST possible time to visit in terms of volume of prospects.
Another caveat with Summer visits is to make sure the Admissions Dept. is open the week you plan to visit…in our experience most closed for a period of time for vacation.
We visited some schools for the first time in the Fall, and a few in the Winter as well…including one visit during 7th grade year, when her sport was in season (Winter of 8th would be too late as apps were due in Jan).
Some schools will do interviews in spring, if your child is ready for that. Mine wasn’t, BS was still a new idea so she wouldn’t have been able to present herself well or show much knowledge of the school. Also keep in mind that in spring, many schools are not open for visits until the revisit madness is over.
My D would not have been happy doing Skype interviews, and with the poor quality of our own chats every week, I can’t imagine doing it myself. She is now a senior and went to great lengths to avoid any Skype interviews for college.
Do you have to go to an interview/visit? I’m from California and my parents really don’t have the money (or time, because they work a lot) to fly the 3 of us back to New England because we just went on vacation.
@snowyowlgal, no you don’t have to.
Our personal experience as a California family is that Skype and/or Off site (alumni or touring admission officer) interviews were just as good as on site interviews. You can visit the school’s website, find out when they have information sessions at your town, and ask if they could interview you while there. They don’t always have time, but nothing is lost by asking.
How long is a typical Skype interview? DS had one, it was shorter than his regular interviews (about 15min). Is that typical?
It can vary, just as the face-to-face interviews. My daughter had both short and long Skype interviews, and the interview length had no correlation with admission results. E.g., a brief, last-minute Skype interview with Lawrenceville resulted in admission with close to full FA, while extensive, 45-min Skype interviews with NMH and Suffield resulted in a waitlist. So don’t worry about it, and don’t read anything into it.
Thanks. In the case of opting for the SKYPE interview due to distance from school, is it OK to wait to visit until after M10 (depending on acceptance) ? DS is very interested in this particular school, but getting there in the spring would be much easier for us.
Totally fine. We could visit only half of the schools, due to distance. We did Skype interviews with the other half. If accepted, you can visit in the spring.
I wouldn’t lose sleep over the length of the interview. My child had two via Skype, both of which were on the shorter side, and I’ve seen a lot of commentary on CC indicating that one should not try to make any predictions based on length of the interview or one’s perception of the interviewers predilections. Plus, I can only imagine that, at this point in the interview season, the interviewer’s schedules are jam-packed.
Great - thanks. The other one we had to reschedule as Skype because of illness on day of travel for the school visit/interview. I hope that does not reflect on his interest; just too sick to travel that day.
@sunnyschool don’t worry, none of this matters, and AOs don’t take it as a lack of interest. Many people have to reschedule interviews and visits due to illness or other reasons. We did it too, and it was inconsequential.
Thanks, one less worry! Don’t know how we will pass time until M10. Need a vacation!