<p>My wife thinks that it's always safer to dress up than down, so she insists my son be in suit & tie. Could anyone experienced shed some lights on this matter? And what about the dress code for parents who'd be there for the interview too?</p>
<p>We will also have an alumni interview at our house. Should he still dress that "up"? </p>
<p>Thanks for your input in advance.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not experienced at all xD But when I went to my alumni interview for Andover at the Ten Schools Informational Meeting, around 90 percent of the boys were dressed in suits, and so were all of the adults there. I just wore a cashmere sweater, jeans, and a cashmere scarf so I was a little under dressed, but there were also a small amount of people in just polos and jeans. I think it'd be better to dress up, though.</p>
<p>At home, I would think he would not need to dress up that much. Just look "nice."
At the interviews, my son wore a suit (or sport coat) and tie for every one of his 12 - even if the dress code at the school was not formal. Pretty much every boy we saw (and we saw a lot!) had the same on. </p>
<p>Parents - my husband wore nice pants, sport coat and tie. I wore black dress pants and a sweater with comfortable shoes. Both of us on the dressier side of business-casual (and then adding the sport coat). We did see a few parents in jeans and much less dressier than us, but I never once FELT overdressed and EVERY one of the people who interviewed my son was definately in business attire (suit for men, dressy biz attire for women).</p>
<p>Thans very much xoogaby and Linda - exactly the info I am looking for.</p>
<p>I have great interviews with kids in jeans. And great interviews with kids in suits.</p>
<p>The applicant should look presentable and feel comfortable. They should also look like themselves. I often interview kids that are in a suit, and I know their parents put them in it. And it's OK, it's common. But I'd find it pretty formal for an interview in the applicant's home.</p>
<p>If the school has a dress code, the student should wear something that would match, or exceed, that dress code.</p>
<p>When I interviewed, I wore a suit, but I also saw others that were much more casual. Still, I would wear a suit (but not buy a new one) since I believe that most people look better and smarter in a suit.</p>
<p>I'm a fan of boys wearing a coat and tie for interviews, not suits and not jeans. It's respectful without sticking out too much or being too obviously an irregular state of affairs for the already anxious kid.</p>
<p>My son looks MUCH better in a suit, luckily that's like the norm for this kind of occasion. ThatcherParent, is anything that's so distinctively different you can feel at Thatcher than in the schools of New England. We will - I think - visit Thatcher in Jan next year, and would like to know more from perspective of a current Thatcher parent.</p>
<p>Watertester….I didn’t mean to suggest that a suit is ever inappropriate. Whatever makes your son feel most comfortable is the way to go. </p>
<p>By asking me to draw a comparison between the Schools on the East Coast and Thacher (just one “t”), you’re asking someone who, over the course of four years, came to believe that the School is accomplishing something unique with its kids that exceeds typical great boarding school outcomes. </p>
<p>Context: Our family lives on the East Coast. Our educational history is a mix of public, private day and boarding schools depending on the family member. We visited a number of the usual cast of BS characters when my son was in 8th grade, including Choate, Hotchkiss, Exeter, Millbrook, St. Marks, St. George’s and Groton. Thacher was more a throw-away visit to appease my son who had discovered the School online and was attracted by what he read. There was no way I was going to let him go 3000 miles away when there were fantastic options less than a day’s drive away. Little did I know.</p>
<p>We loved the East Coast schools for their sense of history, their picturesque New England campuses, their School Spirit, their proud educational traditions, and their excellent college admissions. I have nothing bad to say about any of them; they are truly exceptional institutions. Boarding school choice is always about fit anyway, which is why I find the obsessive ranking discussions on CC to be a waste of time, but that’s a whole other discussion.</p>
<p>In Thacher, we found a School that lives its values. I don’t know if it’s because the School is newer, or because it’s in a warmer climate, or because it’s surrounded by mountains, or because of its horse program, but whatever accounts for its unusual alchemy, its greatness has nothing to do with edifices, Churches (we’re Christian by the way), portraits of famous graduates, oval tables or any other physical symbols. </p>
<p>Thacher’s values, which become a part of your kid’s life from the first time he or she sets foot on campus, are honor, fairness, kindness and truth. I know that I sound like a sap when I say that, but the reality is that these are what you notice, they are what you think of when you’re a Thacher parent or “become” when you’re a Thacher kid. They bind the community together. This is the most striking difference that we found between East and West, the “symbols” weren’t physical.</p>
<p>My wife and I also found the Thacher kids to be modest about their gifts (which are prodigious), appreciative of the opportunity they were given to attend Thacher, and lacking any sense of entitlement. The academics are the same whether you’re at Thacher, Cate, Deerfield, Groton, Exeter etc. so for us the decision rested far more on what kind of person our son would become after his boarding school experience. </p>
<p>Finally, the physical location of Thacher, especially for East Coasters like us, has such a different feel and impact, one that we ended up falling in love with. The mountains, the orange groves, the sunsets, the smells of sage, Lavender and Eucalyptus, the sound of coyotes at night, there is a connectedness to nature in Ojai that is way more powerful than we were used to here on the right coast. To a person, the kids are graduated from Thacher with a genuine reverence for the world around them, for protecting the environment. </p>
<p>These are just a few of the differences. I apologize to for being such a biased Dad, but if it’s any consolation, I never expected to be!</p>
<p>Thanks very much ThacherParent for your thoughts. Thacher may be the the only school outside the "big 10" my S may apply to. I have an opportunity to move to the west coast for work so if the school works out for my son I'd get to be closer to him geographically.</p>
<p>What do you think would be appropriate for a girl to wear to the interview?</p>