I just finished several rounds of interviews for boarding school and nearly every single one asked what other schools I was applying to. Is there a reason for this or are they just sort of making small talk. I talked to several other applicants who said it is for yield protection or to see if where their school ranks in the list of schools you are applying to. Wasn’t sure if this was true?
This thread answers your question my friend.
Have a great February 15th!!
In addition to what @YoungThriver posted above, there was a long thread on this last year. FWIW, a few schools also asked us parents that question!
You ask WHY? Here are some thoughts for the 2018-2019 admissions cycle. Let’s imagine you are sitting in the interview session with the AO from “St Prep” boarding school:
- To determine the types of schools you are applying to and level of competitiveness?
- If St Prep is your top choice, reach, or safety?
- Let’s say you are keen on a girls/boys school and state you are most interested in St Prep because it is all female and explain the many advantages of an all female education....then when asked “what other schools are you applying to?”....you list all Co-Ed schools.
- To know TYPE of BS you are interested in or local - if this is just an outlier. For example, if your list is composed of West Coast schools but just for a reach you apply to NE school (St Prep).
- To determine if all the other schools are in Ten Schools?
- To further know HOW MANY schools you are applying to?
- To know if you are smart enough to know how to field, answer, or return this “lob shot” to the back court?
As @skieurope has suggested before, you can use this opportunity to further explain what you are looking for in a school.
Last but not least, maybe the AO is board and just wants to ask the question because they can?
PS - I did not mean “Reach” to a NE school as a Reach - what i meant to say was “giggles”, “difference”, or “what the heck let me apply to PEA to see what happens even though my folks want me to stay in British Columbia”. I meant no offense to West Coast Schools (BTW - most amazing school we saw was on Vancouver Island…but no FA to USA kids at the time).
FWIW - one AO we spoke to last year was interested in the Ten School factor because they do provide information events as a group around the country. They hold Ten School events and this AO was interested to see if attendees end up applying to many/most of those schools.
@Golfgr8 How does being a school being part of Ten Schools Admissions Org. actually affect admissions, can they contact each other regarding applicants before the day they begin discussing admissions decisions (which I believe was March 12th last year, not sure though).
Great question @CC4life - I didn’t think the AO implied anything about admissions, rather it was about marketing efforts and impact of the informational events they provide and invest into as a group. I have the sense more about it as a way to determine success of their events and marketing?
Admissions decisions last year officially were March 10th for most schools mentioned here on CC. Yes - I will be posting the March 10th poem again this year! :bz
So interesting, we haven’t been asked this at all (unless kid was in interviews and never mentioned it). We were however early in the interview cycle so maybe they figured we didn’t know where we were applying.
I have also been waiting for coaches to ask this, because of info from old threads, but they have not.