<p>Im looking at Hotchkiss, Deerfield, SPS, Taft and a couple safeties. What will make my interviews memorable and really good?</p>
<p>Be yourself. I do not mean that in a trite or dismissive way. They REALLY want to find out a bit about who you are. They are quite good a judging applicants based both on your answers and your questions. They want to know what you want from a school/education. And yeah, they really want to know if you want their school and whether you have a valid reason to want to attend. To make it memorable, relax and try to enjoy the people you meet.</p>
<p>This is a tip to make you seem more erudite. If the interview asks about a recent book that you’ve read? Say a classic literature book like Huckelberry Finn, and make sure you actually read it or a summary on SparkNotes 
just in case he/she asks you about the plot</p>
<p>I disagree CCer999, that sounds really prepared and a little pretentious if you didn’t even really like the book. Be honest. tell them what you’re reading or your favorite book. </p>
<p>Just the way to make yourself not stand out, say you like the book every other person on the planet has read and loved when you haven’t even read it…</p>
<p>I have never read hucklebery Finn…
I just hope Exeter doesn’t think I am a fake because I have read 2 books and by Dan Brown and one of them is my favorite (I am also reading one right now.) I don’t want them to think that I am sucking up to them.</p>
<p>I have set my interview and tour!!!</p>
<p>already???</p>
<p>My son has all of his scheduled.</p>
<p>When are you having your interviews? (urbanflop and neatoburrito)
Are you taking time off school?</p>
<p>Just be yourself. Yeah, that sounds cliche but don’t act fake and try to be all-knowing about everything. The interviewers can probably catch it.
Just treat the interview like a conversation that you’d have with a close adult. Maybe you can crack a few jokes and just be honest.</p>
<p>When they ask you about any current books, classics isn’t necessary but it’d be nice to maybe have one or two. Your whole list does NOT have to have Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, etc. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I am taking it in November and I am taking 1 day off of school.</p>
<p>@xoxohersheykiss did you already get into Exeter?</p>
<p>Hey, good job urbanflop, you listened to me and scheduled your interviews early :).
and 4/5 of mine are on weekends and one of my interviews is on Friday, my first is late october, and my last is early december</p>
<p>Visit St. Paul’s in Mid October when the leaves are mind blowing. December will be a bit cold!</p>
<p>@ urbanflop: Yes, xoxohershey is attending Exeter this fall.</p>
<p>I’ll try to schedule my interviews tomorrow, just I’m not sure if I’ll be applying to Choate. 6 schools are a lot, yeah? Just my problem is that besides Choate and Peddie, all the other schools I’m interested in are incredibly selective. I’ll try my hardest, I guess.</p>
<p>@urbanflop: yep! class of '13!</p>
<p>I’ve done many practice interviews with students, and it’s hard to put a finger on what is great about the greatest interviews. They are usually dynamic, interesting people who make you think “wow!” when you are talking with them. </p>
<p>I’ve noticed that the worst interviews are usually with boys, and in most cases these kids and their parents thought that the interview would go well. The biggest problem points are declining to answer questions, or saying “I don’t know”, giving a series of one sentence answers and not getting any conversation going, which makes it hard to get to know the student. An example: “Have you won any award or honors?” A not so great answer is “No, my school doesn’t have that.” A better answer is: “My school tries to discourage competitiveness so we don’t have any rankings, awards, honor roll or anything like that. While I liked that at first, as I get older, I’m finding that I would rather have the chance to win an award, to have something to strive for…” That is an example of elaborating. The interviewers ask a bunch of question, but their main goal is to get to know you, not to have those specific questions answered. So go ahead and give a longer answer if you can.</p>
<p>And for you chatty types, try to focus your comments on positive things about you and your application. Don’t go off on tangents that don’t add to the conversation.</p>
<p>hope that is helpful to anyone who reads this.</p>
<p>thanks, newyorker! could you maybe recount the best interview you ever had?</p>
<p>also- do NOT slouch. i had the horrible, horrible habit of sitting on the edge of the sofa/armchair with my arms folded in and with me kinda hunched over. all in all it was a pretty defensive position (though i didn’t realize it at the time).</p>
<p>good luck, guys!</p>
<p>Thanks newyorker that really helps!!!</p>
<p>Not sure if it has been mentioned or not but linkedin is really helpful. Gives the interviewee an idea of what the interviewer is like. For example last year my Exeter interviewer skied quite a bit, and I like that, and my ability to keep a genuine conversation with her regarding that and other activities, I think, really helped my application to there be successful.</p>
<p><a href=“http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-10_ways_to_be_liked_in_your_job_interview-947racked.com/[/url]”>http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-10_ways_to_be_liked_in_your_job_interview-947racked.com/</a></p>
<p>This article seems very helpful. Just change “employer” to “school” and etc.</p>