Good interview vs. Bad interview

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For our 4th grader, there was no correlation between interview and admissions outcome this past year.

Second this. Our son was incredibly underwhelming in his interviews (which he was doing at home, last year during COVID, so we were around.)
He's a shy kid and just came off as really bla and unremarkable.
Did not seem to have any negative effect. He was admitted to several of the school where the interviews had gone badly. Best of luck to your DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My only insight is they over the years my child had two amazing interviews where we thought she rocked it and would for sure get in. She didn’t get in either time. She had lots of success in admissions over the years but I will never get excited over a great interview again

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought school interviews were to screen for difficult kids or parents. Once you’re deemed uncrazy it’s a minor boost.

I hope so haha. My DC has had some good and not so good interviews/visits, so it is a gamble for us. DC has a good recommendation letter (I hope), good grades, and is above grade level but still made some silly mistakes on the academic testing :s. In one particular visit DC was told he did an excellent and that he would do well in any of the schools he applied to (does that mean anything at all?). The parent interviews went ok.

[Anonymous]

I think all PPs are pretty correct in that there is only a loose correlation. Good interviews obviously are better than bad but a bad interview is not necessarily going to end your application.

DC was accepted at all schools that the interview went great and was 1 out of 2 for the schools were the interview went bad.

[Anonymous]

For the lower grades, they’re looking more at you than your child. The interviewer is trying to get a sense of who you are and if you’d be a good fit in their curated community. Barring some awful thing that comes up when they interact with your kid, they’re going to assume parents that are a good fit will produce kids that are a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Does it matter who they assign as your interviewer? At big 3 have gotten full range from jr to sr people in admissions decision making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it matter who they assign as your interviewer? At big 3 have gotten full range from jr to sr people in admissions decision making.

Of course it matters, but you don’t know who is going to like you and who isn’t. Kind of the luck of the draw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does it matter who they assign as your interviewer? At big 3 have gotten full range from jr to sr people in admissions decision making.

Of course it matters, but you don’t know who is going to like you and who isn’t. Kind of the luck of the draw.

I’m not sure that it matters that much and it could be helpful to not be interviewed by senior people who have set ideas. Pretty sure our parent interview at a Big 3 was with a temp employee in the admissions office. It didn’t affect the outcome at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it matter who they assign as your interviewer? At big 3 have gotten full range from jr to sr people in admissions decision making.

I was wondering this too. All of my parent interviews were with AD for that grade level or a more senior AD. I was surprised because of all I had read about other staff members being included in interview process. Only one school seemed to use a temporary hire for student playdates. Others seem to be run by full time teaching and admissions staff.