When I was applying last year, I had similar experiences at a few schools when I visited for an ON-CAMPUS tour/interview that I will happily name: Andover, Exeter, Choate and Deerfield.
I had better experiences at Andover and Choate, then at Exeter and DA.
I think at Andover, a college counseling person interviewed me
Choate - I think a faculty member’s spouse and Choate parent
Exeter - alumni
Deerfield - faculty member
At most of these schools w/ the exception of Exeter, I actually really enjoyed the tours, and got into the schools.
My Andover interviewer made we feel very welcome, and helped me out a lot - making it a lot easier as it was my 1st interview.
At Choate, my interviewer was very friendly and helpful even though we had arrived late because of some snow on our drive down.
At Deerfield, my tour went well, and I had met w/ some music faculty as well; I was very excited about the school. However, the interview did not go well, and it just didn’t feel real.
At Exeter, my tour was combined w/ somebody else’s because some tour guide forgot to show up… My tour guide was actually really nice, and I liked him, just not the school - did not seem very welcoming to me. This kinda put me down, seeing as Exeter was my favorite school pre-visit (LESSON LEARNED: DON’T PICK FAVORITE SCHOOLS BEFORE THE VISIT; AND STILL DON’T PICK FAVORITES AFTERWARDS!)
Then, the interview with the alumni went pretty bad. The person was not at all interested in me, and kinda made me feel bad about myself. The only part where he was excited was when he started handing me all of the admissions materials like the view book etc…
In fact, I didn’t apply to Exeter after this whole experience.
Something I noticed was that I really did not like the interviews that were more Q and A, such as the DA, and PEA ones. All of my other interviews were more conversation-like.
Also, I feel like larger, more well-known schools like the ones I just wrote about do this more often ie. not meeting with an actual AO.
My best experiences w/ visiting was for the most part at small or more medium sized schools.
@jwalche I understand that, but my point was more that IF a kid is de-motivated by struggling very hard to be near the top, then that could be a factor in deciding which schools suit that kid.
@london203, Ok I see that now! Of course I agree with you. It’s just my D never trys to stay on top, so it didn’t occur to me. Mine just tries to get A. But it kinda works similar when it fails;
Last night she learned that she got B with 895/1000 on her U.S. history that she worked very hard. De-motivating even more because the final was all essay type questions and she thought her answers were very good, but the teacher gave her 251 instead of needed 256 out of 300 for overall A.
She wouldn’t have suffered that if she was the stay-near-the-top kid and planned classes accordingly. (or she won’t suffer that if she chooses a boarding school accordingly this Spring)
For what it’s worth, soxgirl interviewed at two schools with non-AO officers and got in to both. To me, it was all in the way it was handled. At one school, she interviewed with a teacher (not also part of the Admissions office) and it felt to me like they’d just grabbed someone to fill in some slots when they were busy. No one from the regular admissions office staff took the time to introduce themselves or explain. At another school, the admissions office accommodated us by letting her interview on the day of the open house, which they don’t normally do but we live far enough away that we weren’t going to go to the school twice. On that occasion, the AOs were all busy with the open house and so couldn’t do interviews, but she interviewed with a trustee and the AD took the time to track my daughter down and spend a few minutes talking to her informally and then followed up with an email after that. Night and day difference in how we felt about those two schools!
This is all very interesting, @RedSoxFan18. We, too, have interviewed with both AOs, as well as faculty “helper” interviewers for DD this year. Last year was all AOs for our son with interview lengths all ranging from 15-25 minutes, mostly via Skype since we are in the west. He was accepted to all five schools. For DD, we visited the five schools and skyped with two. Interview lengths varied from 12 minutes via Skype (YES, I AM NOT KIDDING, 12 minutes!), to over one hour in-person. Crazy!
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to any it, and for this I would not read into it! The one thought I do have, is that perhaps the BS’ are all having another “Record” applicant year and they are simply too busy to have their AOs do all the interviewing.