<p>My experience with admissions officers is limited. My son had only two interviews and both interviewers were full-time AOs. But it's my understanding that the AOs at many schools (perhaps only the smaller ones?) have multiple hats: dorm parent, athletic coach, etc. I'm curious what you all encountered . . . . </p>
<p>And does it make a difference what the AO's second hat is? In other words, does it say something about the school if their admissions officer is also the ice hockey coach? If my kid has never even played ice hockey, and really isn't that interested in sports, is that perhaps not the school for him? Should he be looking for a school where the AO is also the Latin teacher? I'm guessing it's a question of time management - and the faculty who are most available to do interviews are the athletic coaches, but I don't know.</p>
<p>Also, are there many schools that have individual AO's for each class - 9th grade boys, 10 grade girls, etc?</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter. I’ve encountered both. My daughter interviewed by the coach of a sport she doesn’t play. They hit if off really well, anyway, and found common ground in other areas. She was accepted.</p>
<p>At another school, we were interviewed by a full-time AO and she remembered all the tiny details from both my daughter’s and my interview and it was in the acceptance letter.</p>
<p>It’s like a job interview - when all things are equal what matters more is personality fit between child and interviewer and - and even then you can’t tell. Remember, the entire admissions committee decides, not the single interviewer. My daughter had an interview that she thought went poorly - the interviewer was very staid and serious the whole time. But when it was my turn to be interviewed the AO gushed about my kid and said it was the most effortless interview she had that day.</p>
<p>So don’t sweat it. What I recommend? If you are assigned to a full-time AO, ask to talk to other teachers (if they haven’t contacted you already based on your application). At one school, we were able to speak with a teacher who - after speaking with my daughter- called colleagues to meet with us. At another school, we received prior emails from a coach from a sport she does play and music teacher asking to meet her when she visited. Both schools accepted her, in the end.</p>
<p>Be proactive - if your kid has an interest - ask to speak with teachers in that field (if only briefly) - it may make a difference in the outcome.</p>
<p>In our experience, AOs are professionals, and it doesn’t matter what they do with the rest of their time. Our daughter, who has a horror of anything sports or athletic related, was interviewed by the varsity baseball coach at the school that gave her the most FA!</p>
<p>There are schools where the admissions function is not full time full year so that those working in the office can be coaches, advisors and even dorm supervisors, as well. Since the interviews and admissions meetings are usually during the hours that classes are held, the admissions function does not detract from other responsibilities and vice versa.</p>
<p>Since you mention ice hockey, I have to say that one of my D’s teachers was an ice hockey coach, and he was a fabulous teacher too. We are not a hockey family, and it made no difference.</p>
<p>As to the sports program, it is important to see whether participation is important in general. In some schools sports are part of the program, and in big enough schools, even those who have never played before can be on jv or a freshman team (and very rarely varsity), while at others this would not happen. I know in one sport at one of the schools fairly frequently mentioned on this board, you must be fairly well ranked nationally to be on that varsity team. In some schools it may not make a difference if you play sports, even if they field many teams. For the non player, I would not want to see the kid sitting out at a sporty type school. I hope this makes sense.</p>
<p>I just looked at the 2009 Hotchkiss “Prospectus for Admission”. It shows that there are nine admission officers at Hotchkiss (one dean and eight assistant deans). None teach, although one is also an Assistant Dean of College Advising and another is the Coordinator of Multicultural Outreach. So it looks like it is full time admissions work for all nine THS AO’s pretty much all of the time. Pretty awesome. I assume that the other top BS’s have the same, similar or better admission staffs.</p>
<p>One of my friend is a part-timer at Exeter. She conducted admission interviews during Fall and Winter. It all depend on the workload and which school. Typically they are profesional who are trained to conduct interviews.</p>
<p>Most Admissions folks (at all schools) are also dorm parents even if you don’t see that on the “bio” and many do coach a a “club” sport, again, you would not see that in their “bio” online.<br>
My son interviewed at 12 schools - only 2 were HADES and none of the people who interviewed him also taught. </p>
<p>By the way - at Hotchkiss - there are 2 “admissions interviewers” who are teachers and coaches and every single other “admissions staff” has significant other responsibilities - coaching duties, club duties, dorm duties, etc. This is very typical of all schools (even the “top” ones as toombs61 put it).</p>
<p>Linda S, thanks for the inside dope on AO’s. As for Hotchkiss AO’s, I shared with CC only what I had read about them in the Hotchkiss “Prospectus”. Other than this info, I know next to nothing about the admission staff at Hotchkiss. All insight on AO’s at THS or otherwise is appreciated, however.</p>
<p>I just looked it up on the Hotchkiss web site…
Like I said, we interviewed at a very wide range of schools and from Kimball-Union to St Paul’s and they were all “full time” admissions but most lived in dorms and almost all coached.</p>
