<p>Hi, this is my first post! First off, I want to thank you all for all of the information you have supplied me. For the last month, I have been reading every (well nearly) thread, and have gained such immense insight to the BS application process and the life of a boarding school student.</p>
<p>Without you guys my DC would be blindly applying to PA and no where else! Through the hidden gems thread and lots of advice I've read on here, we have discovered 15 more promising options.</p>
<p>SO, onto my questions...
My DC will be attending the TSAO meeting when it comes to our city next month. Unfortunately, we will not be able to travel to have her interview on campus, so she has set up 3 interviews for the night of the event.</p>
<p>I am concerned because they are back-to-back, lets call it 3:00, 3:30 and 4:00.
Is 30 minutes enough time to complete the interview? What if it runs over by 2 minutes?
Will the AOs think less of her for interviewing with "the competition"?</p>
<p>Don’t worry - the AOs will not think less of your child for interviewing with more than one school. They understand completely. They are not “machines” - they are 99 times out of 100 great people, and will not rudely stop your child from talking in the middle of a sentence so they can get to the next person waiting for their appointment. They also all know each other - they travel together to these events, have meals together, hang out in the airport, etc. So don’t stress - it will all work out just fine.</p>
<p>We attended a TSAO in our area last year, and thought it was very worthwhile. A few words of advice:
allow lots of extra time to get to the location (usually a hotel) and park. Traffic and parking can sometimes be a hassle, and you don’t want your child (or you!) to have any additional stress from running late.
we preferred sitting toward the front of the room, not the back, because it was much easier to hear what each AO was saying (acoustics in hotel conference rooms are sometimes pretty poor)
time was at a premium, so we knew ahead of time which schools we were definitely interested in, which schools we definitely weren’t, and which ones were “maybes.” We visited the tables in descending order of interest. (We did not have interviews set up for the TSAO event)</p>
<p>AOs will not think less of your DD for interviewing at multiple schools. It would be foolish to limit yourself to just one school at this point! Also, with the boarding school admissions process it’s very common to interview at schools to which you don’t end applying. My DD interviewed at eight boarding schools because it was part of the school visit, but ended up applying to only 3 of those.</p>
<p>As for the TSAO event, when we attended last year there were certain schools where the table was completely swamped and other schools with very quiet tables. Be sure to be strategic about using the waiting time at the swamped tables to visit the other tables. And I think the TSAO event (the tables and the Q&A portion) are definitely in the category of being for you and not for the schools - by that I mean that this is not the forum where you’ll impress an AO so you can concentrate on listening and asking the questions you really want to ask. I found that in the Q&A a lot of the questions sounded like they were being asked just for the sake of getting noticed- they were questions that could easily be answered by looking at a website.</p>
<p>One thing about TSAO that’s useful is that it highlights the differences among the schools, which can help narrow things down for you.</p>
<p>Finally, all 3 of the boarding schools my DD applied to held separate individual events in our area, so you should ask the schools you’re interested in if they’re going to be doing that.</p>
<p>Agreed that interviewing with the “competition” is expected – why else are they there? They are traveling to you to make it easier for you to get your questions answered and for your child to interview with AOs, especially for those students who may not be able to visit any or all of the campuses they are interested in. IMO, the TSAO event is the next best thing to a campus visit.</p>
<p>Choate was not on our radar when the TSAO came to our town, but the time spent with the rep at the table changed that, so I heartily recommend checking out schools that may not be on your list. You never know what will cause your kid’s eyes to light up. Fortunately for us, hardly anyone attended the event, so we had plenty of time to converse with reps. Also, our son’s interviews were back-to-back, but one AO just passed him off to the next as they finished though both took almost twice the allotted time, probably because they were in no hurry as no one else appeared to be waiting to interview. In any case, don’t sweat the schedule; these guys have been doing this dog-and-pony show for a long time and know how to keep things balanced and moving. </p>
<p>One last word: I would caution your student that it may not be best to innocently tell school A that school B is his/her first choice like our DS did – although the school A AO howled about this all night and said that was the gutsiest thing he’d heard in a long time. Sometimes common sense is none too common.</p>
<p>One other caveat to reassure. Most AO’s are friends as they normally travel together for 4-5 days at a time. Many of them carpool and have been doing so for years. “Competition” for students is certainly not a cutthroat game in the boarding school world and most AO’s I’ve met are very friendly with peers at other schools, don’t stress about schedule/appearances just make sure everyone is as relaxed and ready to chat as they can be (parents/children).</p>
<p>All that being said about relaxing, when we attended the TSAO event there were some kids there in things like sweaty soccer clothes or shorts and sneakers. I live in the SF Bay Area which is a casual place, but it really doesn’t make a very good impression to look like you don’t even care enough to shower and present your best self, in recognition that this is an important process. Since you’re interviewing I assume that you’ll dress well anyway, but it’s just something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>Unfortunately a lot of us had games and practices right up to some of the admission events so we had the choice of either showering and being late, or showing up in team uniforms and being on time. There was definitely a mix of what people wore, many just wore their coat and tie or school skirts. Given the choice I would dress and shower, but if I had to go after a game in my jersey it just gave me something else to talk about. I understand the thinking regarding presenting your best self and I agree with friendly mom. But for some of my best friends, this (athletics) IS their best self. And the good news is we all got accepted to BS.</p>
<p>And for my 1000th post, I would like to express my gratitude to all the enthusiastic students and to all the kind and helpful parents who have posted on the CC Prep School board. </p>
<p>I have really enjoyed reading your thoughtful and supportive contributions over the last 2 years!</p>