<p>Hi</p>
<p>I'm interested in visiting a school and read that their open house is an entire day long which ends with an interview. Is this the best time to see the school? I also read on their site you can visit during the week...touring and getting an interview. Is there a disadvantage for having your interview during the open house day? It seems like a very long day (the open house day).</p>
<p>Any btdt suggestion would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Go when it’s convenient for your family’s schedule. S1 was admitted into his school w/o having attended an open house. </p>
<p>The east coast schools all look gorgeous in autumn colors. All the campuses can seem bleak when the leaves have dropped from the trees.</p>
<p>GMT+7 thanks…I wasn’t sure if the open house day interviews would be rushed or shortened since they will have many people attending the open house…but the day of the open house is most convenient for us. You made a great point…this would be a great time to see the autumn colors!</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t opt for an interview AFTER a full day of open house stuff. I think your kid might be too tired and just ready to go home at the end of the day. If you could spare the time/money to do two visits, that would be better, IMO. Do the open house first, then come back at a later date to do the interview…another benefit is that your child will be able to speak to things he/she learned/loved about during the open house.</p>
<p>7D…that’s my worry… that after a long day, she may be tired for an interview. I will contact the school and ask if the interview after the open house is optional.</p>
<p>I imagine the admissions staff is pretty pooped at the end of an open house too. That said, they wouldn’t offer interviews if they weren’t up to it. On the plus side, consider that your student may also be really pumped about the school after having spent a day there, and that’s a wonderful thing to be able to convey to the admissions folks.</p>
<p>Doing it in one day could also make the conversation easier… your child will have just seen it all and will probably have lots of questions at that point!</p>
<p>We tried this approach on just one of our visits. the Open House was fantastic and my D did have lots of questions, but the admisions staff was way overbooked and we had to sit and wait for over an hour for the interview at the end of the day. The AO was exhausted (having just returned the night before from a school fair in the Midwest, and about to leave for another in NYC). She was lovely, but yawned about 100 times during the interview and I felt really sorry for her! My D’s interview was the very last one and it was short – like 15 minutes, when the other schools all took about 45 minutes. Having said that… she was D’s favorite AO of all the schools, and she was accepted :)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone…lots to think about. What concerns me is that we will be returning by train and I’d rather not go over schedule and miss my train. Let’s see if I could get a ride that day. Like the typical NYer who was born and raised in the city…I don’t have a drivers license 
…we do have a car so if my husband can take off of work that day…then it’s ok.</p>
<p>You could also explain your situation to them and ask that your interview be scheduled early in that group… at the Open House we went to, they did the interviews beginning around 3 PM, I think… and ours wasn’t scheduled till 4:45…</p>
<p>Both our educational consultant, and our grade schools’ secondary school placement officer, strongly recommended that we hold off on interviews until AFTER the first week of December. That gives you about 10 days in December and the first two weeks of January. This consultant, who was a former Director of Admissions for a well known boarding school, says that there is a strong recency effect by admissions professionals. Yes they take notes, but the emotional impact of an interview – of their finding a truly great kid who they love – will fade with time. You want them to feel that emotion as they attend candidate reviews in the second half of January. My daughter applied to 5 schools (2 HADES) and we did all interviews in mid-December and early January. Very successful outcomes.</p>
<p>If you call schools to schedule interviews, they will strongly try to guide you to do your interview earlier in the fall (e.g., October and November). They will even say they are about full for December/January slots. That is just their attempt to not have everyone wait until the last minute. Hold out for a late slot!!! But schedule that Decmber or January slot before November 1.</p>
<p>Devolution…it so happens that my daughter gets 5 days off of school at the beginning of December for all school interviews…that’s when most of our interviews will be done. But since it’s only 5 days…there will be interviews done earlier or later than those dates. Thanks for sharing what your consultant said!</p>
<p>Also, we did not attend any open house. Open houses are awkward events where a number of the parents will vie to make an impression of the school’s staff in attendance (I’m guessing this is ineffective or couter-effective behavior). Content shared at open houses is what is available online. Save yourself the hassel and just schedule an interview and get the tour then. However, if your son/daughter is an athlete or specially skilled, I would definately reach out directly via email to the revelant faculty member/coach in advance of your interview day. Also let the admissions office know about your interest in a sport/skill. That way you can meet with that coach/faculty member on the day you visit.</p>
<p>I intentionally scheduled our visits for a more dreary month. I believe we went in late November. Sure those campuses look great in October, but then the leaves fall and the intense workload sets in. We’re from sunny Colorado, and DS is not used to an Eastern winter. He was already so enthusiastic about BS, I didn’t have to do any convincing. Instead, I was actually trying to temper the beautiful “Viewbook” campus with a bit of reality.</p>
<p>Oh…and he did end up going to California for school. Not sure the November visit played a role, but maybe!</p>
<p>We did interviews every month between September and January. One had to be cancelled due to a snowstorm – and was difficult to reschedule. Timing did not affect the outcomes in our case. The Open Houses differ greatly from school to school. At a couple of them, we learned not much more than we had from the website. But others were different – Emma Willard’s in particular. The day was beautifully organized and was packed with great information, panels, time to spend getting to know students and faculty, and fantastic performances by the wonderful music and theater students. A wonderful experience–we were so glad not to have missed it.</p>
<p>Regarding the recency effect, I would counter that there is also a “primacy” effect for kids who visit and interview in late summer. As I noted in my blow-by-blow write up of our search and application experience, we found the AOs are not as rushed in the summer and can (and did) spend more time with our kid/us.</p>
<p>Having visited a few schools this summer, we are trying to set up fall/winter interviews now…</p>