GDS admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world was a typical 30 minute interview 2 hours?

The interviewer was endlessly chatty. Subjects included grammar, baseball, crosswords, cooking, baking, families, etc.

Our US interviewer (this fall) could not have seemed more bored and disengaged. Didn't ask questions of kid, just gave rote examples of the typical school schedule, etc and answered questions about curriculum and extracurriculars briefly. Extremely different from other schools.

[Anonymous]

i think there are two or three main interviewers for US and their styles are very different. i doubt this has any bearing on who ends up getting admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i think there are two or three main interviewers for US and their styles are very different. i doubt this has any bearing on who ends up getting admitted.

yep.
Admissions decisions are based on a committee. The interviewer does not pick who is admitted; at a maximum they can advocate for a kid they really liked---which in the case of the
personable or chatty interviewer (we had her) is probably most kids/families so it's anyone's guess who she advocates for (she seems like the type of person who sees the special value in most if not all kids).
In many cases they have no impact at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i think there are two or three main interviewers for US and their styles are very different. i doubt this has any bearing on who ends up getting admitted.

That’s too bad interviews have no bearing.

But if they did have any weight, best to have some consistent process and interviewers.

This goes for any admit or hiring process. “Anything goes, Do what we” is not a great recipe. I’d expect more from a well-run private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world was a typical 30 minute interview 2 hours?

The interviewer was endlessly chatty. Subjects included grammar, baseball, crosswords, cooking, baking, families, etc.

This was the student interview? What were the questions that were asked?

[Anonymous]

This was the student interview? What were the questions that were asked?

The GDS interview for HS has parents and students together. I don’t remember exact questions (nothing really unexpected), but would suggest you try to let your kid do the talking and add in where necessary. GDS interviewers potentially do talk a lot so be prepared to politely interject.

For any school, I feel for the interview, it’s the job of the potential applicant/family to enthusiastically try to make a connection—interject appropriately with questions or comments. Be prepared with questions that lead to discussion (no boring admissions stats or college matriculation questions). Try to think of 2-3 key points/interests about your child that you want to make clear so ask questions where you think you could interject/reiterate those points in case they are not covered in the interview. Think about ways your child would want to potentially be involved in school and the school community.

For many DMV schools (GDS included), admissions is competitive and they are looking for families who have done their research, unquestionably want to be there and even in the face of tough admissions, think their child would be a great addition to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was the student interview? What were the questions that were asked?

The GDS interview for HS has parents and students together. I don’t remember exact questions (nothing really unexpected), but would suggest you try to let your kid do the talking and add in where necessary. GDS interviewers potentially do talk a lot so be prepared to politely interject.

For any school, I feel for the interview, it’s the job of the potential applicant/family to enthusiastically try to make a connection—interject appropriately with questions or comments. Be prepared with questions that lead to discussion (no boring admissions stats or college matriculation questions). Try to think of 2-3 key points/interests about your child that you want to make clear so ask questions where you think you could interject/reiterate those points in case they are not covered in the interview. Think about ways your child would want to potentially be involved in school and the school community.

For many DMV schools (GDS included), admissions is competitive and they are looking for families who have done their research, unquestionably want to be there and even in the face of tough admissions, think their child would be a great addition to the school.



In our interview, she would make broad statements about our child that were wrong and based on nothing - we'd patiently find a way to interject to ask DC questions in a way that would kindly give them the opportunity to "correct her without correcting her". It was quite an exercise. In the end, DC was accepted but I've never been in that sort of situation before. It's weird to have an interview where someone is verbalizing a set of characteristics for which they have pre-judged you based on essentially appearance and maybe some limited information gleaned thus far in the interview.