Hi. I am a parent new to this forum, and new to the boarding school process. This forum has been a helpful source of information. Thanks in advance for any reactions to this post.
We have now gone on 5 visits and interviews to boarding schools. Our child is looking to board starting in 9th grade. In each case, the AO met with our child, and then separately with us.
My question is whether the reaction of the AO means anything when they meet separately with us, the parents?
In two of the interviews, the AO said complimentary things about our child, but the tone was fairly neutral and even.
But in the other three interviews, each AO raved about our kid when we met separately. These AO said things that seemed really, really encouraging, such as “Your kid really knocked it out of the park”, “Your child would really be a good fit here”, “Your child is the kind of candidate we are looking for here,” etc. One AO followed up our visit by writing us a hand written thank you note saying things like “I think you would do really well here, I hope to see you back on campus soon, etc.” One of the other AOs sent us a thank you email the next day before we could even send one to him.
I assume on some level that AOs are just trying to round up as many applications as they can from any kid that seems like a plausible fit, so when they see someone who might work, they want to make sure they get the application. But these three reactions seemed more than just politely positive.
On the other hand, one of our child’s strengths is their comfort interacting with adults, and positive disposition. I could see our child doing well in an interview.
What does anyone think? Can you read anything into the reaction of an AO at the interview?
It could mean everything and nothing at all . They encourage nearly everyone in some capacity because remember the more people that apply for the same numbers of spots the better their acceptance rates look. And quite frankly most applicants are going to be good applicants I don’t mean to say that they weren’t sincere but I do think this is pretty typical.
If you search this forum, you will find many threads on this topic. Bottom line: don’t read anything into interviews. You will read many comments from posters saying that they were accepted to the school where they felt they had the worst interview and/or the school that was most effusive rejected them. Our son got exactly the same over-the-top positive reactions you post from the two schools that rejected him.
Thank you both for your responses. I dug around and found a few older threads as well. It seems there isn’t a necessarily any correlation between interview reactions and admissions, which isn’t all that surprising. I actually do believe all the literature that says no single aspect is a deciding factor for admissions. But as first timers through this process, we have found it all somewhat confusing, and kind of messing with our minds at times. In the end, I suppose the chips will all fall where they may, and we figure it out from there. Thanks again.
You can never read into what they say or swag they give you at this point in the process. You are at the top of the funnel and they want as many applicants as possible. FWIW, the one interview where we somewhat felt like went meh and that the interviewer was not at all interested in my DD, was an acceptance so go figure. There’s a lot that happens between the interview in October and March 10.
Plus remember that the interviewers are people too - maybe there is a personal problem that causes an off day, or a great day for them. Some are also better at interviewing than others. Also, maybe they really do think your child would be good for that school after the interview, but when all the applications are in they can’t accept everyone with your child’s profile (gender, geographic, academic level, sports, etc). DS is applying to college now, and at many schools we think he would do well if accepted and attends there, but may fall into that middle pack of kids who are all qualified, would do well, etc. but the school can’t accept them all. And if you put all those applications together and had AOs look at them maybe the yes pile today would be different than the yes pile tomorrow. Good luck with the process.
I agree with the wise folks above, but I give interviewers the benefit of the doubt. I suspect, OP, that your child knocked it out of the park on the interview. But the interview is only one part of the whole application, so the real question is whether the great interview, combined with a transcript, SSAT, essays, recs, talents, FA status, etc. create an applicant who will fit into the school 's fabric for the upcoming year.
The other thing to remember is that no single interviewer gets to decide who gets admitted. That decision is made in committee. One student’s interviewer may be, and often is, the biggest advocate for that student in presenting to the committee, but the other members of the committee also have their own interviewees they are pushing and also have votes.
You cannot read anything into the reactions of the interviewers, other than one person’s thoughts and style, which is more reflective of personality than anything else.