<p>He CCers! I've been waiting to post this for some time now so those sneaky AOs don't creep on me. (Silly you's :P)
Some time in the past few months ago, I had my interview. I'm only applying to Exeter and Andover based on my parents' closed minded view of "prestige."
First was Exeter. My tour guide was skittish, very introverted, a freshman, and definitely just not the right person to guide a tour. She was probably a good student but not a very nice or outgoing tour. I ended up being the one who did the most talking, because I had to fill in the awkward spaces. They should probably plan that better. The girl was in short: shy, a little uptight, and serious. It didn't help that she was a freshman. (Not only that, she kept checking her iPhone!) She did have my same nationality, though, which I thought may have been a little bit strange. Maybe they did that to help us "relate." (Did anyone else have that same type of thing going on, or am I reading too much into it?) Personally, we barely got to see anything on the tour and my parents were not impressed by the time we were back into the admissions center. In addition, the campus did not feel "friendly", especially the kids. The adults were all very nice, but the kids were gathered around each other making jokes and not even smiling when we looked at them. The tour was very disorganized. (Much like this paragraph, sorry if it was confusing.)
However, things took a MUCH better turn by the interview. The interviewer made me feel very comfortable. We laughed a lot, and the conversation was flowing, with us talking about many different things. Our conversation ranged from talking about our favorite character in a Seperate Peace to waterskiing in Bora Bora (something we both have not done.) All in all, it was a nice interview experience. (Sorry if I'm being n00bish, but halfway into the interview he filled his note page-- is that a bad or good thing?)
My Andover was experience was MILES better. Our tour was a girl from overseas who was able to describe her experience, and answer all of our questions. She was EXTREMELY nice and outgoing, and she didn't let our questions go unanswered. Needless to say, the tour was really organized. The girl was a really good explain-er and led us around in a circle. It was obviously pre rehearsed (a good thing.) It was in a nice chronological order. The students were welcoming too; they saw I was touring, and acknowledged it. They smiled, waved or even said Hi!
The interview was a little less comfortable than at Exeter, and I felt on my part I could've done better. but the lady was extremely nice and welcoming. She talked about her experience at Andover. Overall I was more impressed with Andover than Exeter as a student. My thing with Exeter was mostly just with the tour guide, though. If accepted I would still recommend/ accept.
So now I want to hear others and see if theirs struck a chord: Did you take schools off your list after visiting, or have an especially great experience at a school? I'd even like to hear if you had similar experiences at A/E, but any school experience is welcome! Parents' views are appreciated.</p>
<p>Ditto- We had a very similar experience. I have just returned from visiting numerous schools (more than a handful). Although my Exeter tour guide was a senior , we had almost the same experience. It was by far the worst of all the tours we went on (more than five). She had the knowledge, but she was like a robot almost like the whole tour was scripted and trying to finish it as fast as possible. Similar to your situation, I would rank my interview with Exeter at the top, if not the best of all of my interviews.</p>
<p>Regarding Andover, the tour was really good. I would rank it 3rd out of all the tours I went on. I am an athlete and my tour guide was an athlete as well. Regarding the interview, it was by far the worst of all the interviews I had. Every single interview I had lasted between 20-35 minutes. My Andover interview lasted maybe 3-4 minutes. Next, when we got in the car and were leaving, my parents said the first thing the interviewer said to them when my parents spent time with the interviewer was “BShopeful2013 is a very strong candidate, who looks like she is very passionate about Singing and Science.” </p>
<p>For the record, I have never done Singing in my life. </p>
<p>Thus, albeit different interviews and tour guides at both schools than you had, we still had close to identical experiences at both schools. We have pretty much written off Andover. Exeter is still on our short list as it’s hard to take them off our list due to a poor tour guide.</p>
<p>I had an interview for St. Margaret’s School in Virginia? One of the Admissions women actually was in my town, and asked if I wanted to do an interview, since she had already received emails from me on questions.
She was so nice and awesome! I was so surprised how easy it was to talk to her. She told me I had all the time I needed to answer questions, and at first, some of my answers were kind of generic, but then we started talking as if I had known her for awhile.
We talked about the school, about my friends, my clubs, traveling (we both travel a lot, so we discussed all the places we had been), my CURRENT school and what it lacked, my favorite book (I was happily surprised she had read it as well), and I even found myself asking HER questions.
From that interview she’s sent me a birthday card, sends me emails asking if I need help on the application, and even gives my mom a few phone calls.
Because of all this, this school is definitely on my list. I love it. I have two more interviews, but this one, my first one, was awesome :D</p>
<p>Definitely feel like there could be a pattern here @BShopeful2013. Seen on more threads here that Exeter also seems like more cold and less friendly school upon tours.
@Bgal101: Definitely on the same spot in the interviews regarding the comfort with the interviewer. I had a lot of the same aspects with my interview even though you interviewed with a different schools. (Perhaps this is a standard formula for interviews?)</p>
<p>I’ve never interviewed or toured with Andover or Exeter, so I can’t help you two come up with a brilliant standerd formula. However, my interviews with two of the GLADCHEMMS and Taft went very smoothly. The only thing that puzzled me was that one of the GLADCHEMMS schools gave me a mini second tour and asked me questions along the way.</p>
<p>I would say that out of the three, Taft’s interviewer was the most clashy with my profile-but that was quickly overcome. All my tour guides were great, and I fell in love with each school :)</p>
<p>I really wish my parents had let me see more schools! 
maybe next year…</p>
<p>My Exeter tour guide was actually nice! Albeit we didn’t click as much as much as I did with the one at Andover, my tour guide was still kind, welcoming, and ready to answer questions. I didn’t get to see the dorms on my tour, if you don’t mind me asking, how do they compare with Andover’s?
My interview was, in my opinion, very fun. For the question, ‘What is your ideal classmate?’, what’d you guys put? I loved that questions and am genuinely interested to hear other peoples opinions on it. </p>
<p>My interview at Andover was more conversation style. It was more relaxed, which made me more nervous! </p>
<p>I left both schools with a positive feeling about the interviews.</p>
<p>I actually liked the atmosphere at Exeter. The place seemed welcoming and warm, and the people were too. I can see how they feel, rushing to class as another doe-eyed hopeful wanders through their campus. I was a little nervous about cross the road to (the dorms?) at Andover, the hustle and bustle are just too foreign too me.</p>
<p>@CellyZ: My tour guide was kind, too, just very quiet and I didn’t think she was the right one to conduct the interview. Maybe I was too harsh, because I was trying to exaggerate a bit.
The dorms: The girl at Exeter showed me her dorm, which was trashed up and down. It was really small and there was so much stuff piled everywhere I could barely see everything! Not the best example of a dorm at Exeter.
Dorms at Andover (Like I presume you saw) were very roomy and neat compared to Exeter-- but then again they have that room for that purpose, and it was a boy’s upperclassmen dorm.
On the actual interview note-- same here!</p>
<p>The last paragraph… Eh. Agree to disagree. Maybe it was just because I had come right after thanksgiving break and they were mopey.</p>
<p>And I agree, Exeter is more isolated from town while Andover is woven in.</p>
<p>My daughter did several interviews and a few Skype ones as well. I listened to both Skype interviews. this goes without saying but the interviewer needs to be good at asking questions. My daughter’s interview for her safety school was outstanding. She did a great job answering questions and he was an excellent salesman promoting his school. </p>
<p>At a reach school, where she has many plusses, the interviewer wasn’t very good. She didn’t ask decent questions and didn’t say much about the school. This was Skype as well. My daughter was also at fault by not asking questions. I thought the admissions person would be more of a salesman and this AO was not.</p>
<p>I find it weird how Andover just posts up off-campus alumni on their site and leaves it up to the applicant to arrange the rest; when I contacted the office, they seemed none too happy at my presence. As a student and maybe applicant, this was thoroughly off-putting. Did any of you share the same experience?</p>
<p>Dorm rooms during Exeter tour = A REAL room of the person who is giving you your tour. It is their room. (And by the way, any student can volunteer their one daily free period to give you your tour, getting no “tour guide leadership club” or “campus job” credit for it). How would you feel showing hordes of visitors through your room at home? </p>
<p>Thank you notes are welcome.</p>
<p>@2prepmom
- Yep. That’s exactly what I said
- Yes, the girl may have volunteered but I suspect that she was forced to do it. I went during everyone’s lunch period and even then the girl kept mentioning that she had a class. And she barely talked. If she wasn’t happy, why did she volunteer? Maybe Exeter didn’t have enough volunteers after Thanksgiving or she had a hidden agenda, but overall she wasn’t engaged and that made for a poor impression of the students at the school.
- I would be fine letting people see my room. I keep it clean for my own motivation and even if it got messy I would clean it up, especially with the knowledge that someone would be over. I think it’s respect and I thought those were the types of kids that got accepted to places like Exeter.
- I sent a thank you note AND short letter the day I got home.
I don’t know, but your post rubbed me the wrong way. Do you think I’m being disrespectful? Just because I’m a kid doesn’t mean that I’m not thankful for what she did, it’s just the tour wasn’t conducted by her well and her etiquette wasn’t up to par. I don’t know if you have some affiliation with Exeter, but I still don’t think you should try so hard to stick up for the school. The thing is, even my current private schools were tons better and that’s a small private day school in the MidWest. I just feel like they could have at least given a better tour.</p>
<p>On one of our tours (can’t remember which) the room that we were shown was rather a disaster - clothes and books strewn everywhere. The tour guide was mortified as it was not her room, but was the designate “tour” room for that day. She said the kid to whom it belonged was going to “get in alot of trouble”. So, even though most schools seem to care alot what the people on the tour get shown, it doesn’t always work out that they get shown the best example. On the other hand, I felt like it was an “honest” room. </p>
<p>At my son’s current school, they have to pick up their room every morning. There is an inspection, with guidelines: bed made, no clothes or books on floor, etc. If they don’t pass the inspection, they get a detention. So I think mostly all the rooms at his school are “tour ready”.</p>
<p>On the topic of touring rooms, I would say that I look for the structure. I don’t groan about how “messy” it might be-in fact, slight messiness gives the room a “homely” feeling. I want to see a well-sized room with a window to let in fresh air, and a closet that can hold a handful of clothes. The messiness is not a factor the school controls-it is the student’s responsibility, and I wouldn’t hold slobbiness against them.</p>
<p>I feel like seeing the room is more for the prospective student than the parents. I’m more interested in seeing a dorm overall, especially the common areas, the layout, and the type of residential community that’s reflected there. </p>
<p>FWIW, my D is now in one of the least desirable rooms in one of the least desirable dorms at her school in terms of physical facilities, but she loves living there because of her dormmates and the head of house/other faculty. But hey, she loved the freshman dorms at Groton, whereas friendlydad and I thought living in a cubicle was the last thing anyone would want to do. So I wouldn’t consider a parent’s reaction to dorm rooms to be a great indicator of whether a school will work for your kid.</p>
<p>Cubicle? 
When comparing the rooms I saw, I thought they were all percariously small. Especially the singles at Hotchkiss-the doubles were better, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Also, notes on Exeter after I toured + interviewed (it’s a bit late for this, but why not?)</p>
<p>My tour guide had good intentions but a bad follow-through. Unlike Taft, my tour guide was silent; there were no witty anedoctes. Answers were as crisp as a well-fried potato chip. The structure of Exeter also off-put me. So big…the student body was also overwhelming. Moreover, the interviewer seemed detatched, like nothing really mattered :S Overall, not a great experience, and I’ve taken it off my list. I didn’t feel that “fit” that I did at other schools.</p>
<p>Sorry to read some of you encountered awkward tours and interviews. I’ve walked many miles of tours and have gone through plenty of interviews during my children’s application process.
I think tour guides are a hit or miss. We were lucky and had fantastic tour guides at Exeter, Loomis, Blair, Kent, Taft, and Choate. We had just one sort of awkward, non talkative tour at Hotchkiss. I’m sure there were a few other schools we toured but I don’t remember them one way or the other, it’s been a few years. All our interviews were pretty good to great.
I always suggest to hang around campus for a bit after your visit and just people watch. You can get a good sense of how the place feels. Thats something to keep in mind on revisit day.</p>
<p>My Child and I interviewed and toured 4 schools (Exeter, Andover, Choate, Hotchkiss) after the New Year and the experience was similar at all of them. The tour guides were invariably friendly, some more talkative than others. All were receptive to questions. The dorm rooms (freshman) were all little and dreary, rather like prison cells with windows, nothing to write home about. Perhaps the upperclassmen rooms are different, but we did not see those. I suppose the dorm should not be the deciding factor of whether or not to attend a school. The interviewers were all extremely nice. Why shouldn’t they be? They want to woo people to apply/attend. If I were the interviewer, I would say good things to make you feel comfortable and welcome even if I don’t think you would be admitted. Besides, they often have not received your application yet at the time of the interview.</p>
<p>Sorry this is a bit late, but I toured Exeter and Concord Academy. Exeter was better than Concord Academy but it was a little awkward. I had a junior tour my parents and I and she was informational but not that welcoming. She seemed a little stand offish, but I really wasn’t focusing on her because i really loved the Exeter campus. When I got to the interview part at Exeter, it was great! The woman I interviewed with was very nice and not intimidating at all! She worked at a camp I am a CIT at so that helped us get more connected I stayed in the interview for about 40 minutes. How long did you guys stay?
Now Concord Academy was the awkwardest tour ever. The senior I toured with was very quiet and said um quite a bit, maybe she was nervous or something. She was nice, but it was kind of weird. The interview at Concord Academy was okay. The person who interviewed me was so young, she could have been my sister! I didn’t really like that. Overall she was nice, not very welcoming, but polite.
What were your experiences?</p>