Holy hubris, Batman! If the Pope or President can make a phone call or take a meeting, your D can to too!
Interviews are not required.
My guess is that half the things in your D’s application are not required- AP Chem? Advanced whatever? Not required. But all good to have, all things being equal. A strong application puts your best foot forward. And responding to emails from admissions- even from colleges which you consider to be rock bottom safeties “a dolphin could get admitted to this school”-- that’s called putting your best foot forward.
The point is that if the college is making an interview available, your D should be prepared to be moderately cooperative in making it happen.
Skip a dialysis appointment? No. Be late for a music rehearsal- after letting the director/conductor know that she has a college interview so will be half an hour late? Yes. That’s moderately cooperative. Stay up until 3 am the night before a big performance so she can squeeze in an interview in the early evening? No. Get an excused absence for gym class so she can interview? yes.
Not seeing how busy a HS kid might be compared to the person actually doing the interview. Who is likely squeezing your D into a full time job plus every other obligation this person might have.
Thanks for all your support. Trying to take some stress off my kiddo but whatever. She did not request an interview.
I think she should interview, I too have a musician and understand the time constraints.
If it’s a safety, then she should be able to politely decline the interview with no consequence. Otherwise it is not a safety and she needs another safety.
It’s not just an hour or 20 minutes, is it? It’s having to prepare for the interview as well. It’s where knowing your kid is what’s most important, if they’re so stressed with everything going on this holiday season, maybe not interviewing is OK.
We had musician kids here too…with very busy schedules with concerts. One was also on the swim team which also was on during December.
The kid still found time to do a phone interview with a School who contacted her.
Is this kid auditioning as a music major? If so…she is applying to too many colleges.
Don’t mean any offense- I don’t feel like I am asking advice for time management advice here. We have some challenges other families don’t have and I don’t want to share them in this particular forum. The interviewer did not offer a phone or skype interview as of yet. My D did respond though.
A few schools for music (giving it her best shot) the rest are LACs. It’s not the best scenario but a bit of a compromise.
It will all work out.
I think, if possible, provide some times she could make herself available (be it phone or face to face). If the school contacts one for an interview? Not interviewing may reflect poorly. If she wasn’t contacted and there was no interview that is different. But since she was contacted it puts her in the unfortunate position of either having a very good reason why she can’t interview or looking uninterested by passing it up.
For what is worth, my son interviewed at his EA school last month. He was contacted by the school asking if he wanted to interview. They sent him an email with a schedule of times available. It turned out to be a really positive experience.
All the interview prep my kids did was talking at dinner about possible questions and reminding them to give firm handshakes.
If she is so busy she can’t find 15-20 minutes, she is too busy. Read the Stressed out Kids thread
All that busy-ness is self imposed. Honestly, drop some of the 15 applications. She can’t be running 24/7 because she’ll get ill. That’s too many it takes too much time to organize and keep up with and I think she won’t do a good job on any of them because she is spread too thin.
But as to the ‘safely’ interview, just have her text back that she unable to do an interview until after the holidays because of concert commitments. The school may not care but it is a chance you take (I personally think they won’t care, but I’m not making the decision).
Does the school consider demonstrated interest as a factor? If it does, she should definitely find the time for an interview. She’s applying EA, not ED. They know she’s not committed as she would be if she were applying ED and they can probably figure out that they’re a safety. Not being interested enough to find time for an interview (would she find time if it were her first choice school?) could lead them to reject or defer her on the grounds that she’s very unlikely to attend.
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For early action I would think demonstrating interest would be important, but clearly this school is not a priority for your daughter. It does seem that turning down an interview will give that message, but perhaps that is fine with her.
I am a little confused. Is she applying to conservatories/schools of music, meaning BM programs? As well as colleges without BM’s?
If a lot of those 15 schools have auditions, she might want to cut some- speaking from experience.
If demonstrated interest is a serious factor then it’s not a safety. An application should demonstrate sufficient interest. A safety means that a properly filled out application will result in an admission. Every student should have at least one but probably two so that they have a school to reject in April.
Sorry I missed the post about her applying to both music schools and colleges. I have a kid who did this to keep options open, but she did 2 colleges and 4 music schools, and believe me, that was quite enough. We also had financial constraints so she chose those schools wisely. She could never have handled 15 applications.
Most music schools have deadlines of Dec. 1 for prescreens. So the recordings going on during December are in addition to prescreen recordings or perhaps the music schools she is applying to have later deadlines?
@Veryapparent - I understand your daughter’s time constraints all too well, since my son was also in a pre-college music program and in an academically demanding academic high school. In addition to the challenges of finding time to practice, schedule rehearsals, schedule recording studio time to make videos, schedule live auditions, your daughter is probably laboring under an extremely demanding academic workload. But everyone who posted above is correct and doing their best to give you good advice. My own would be to never let more than 24 hours pass before responding to any college-initiated contact, and in the case of college interviews when your daughter’s free time is non-existent, she can ask the interviewer for the accommodation of a Skype interview. Best of luck to your daughter!
December 15 pre screen its last one. Redoing an earlier recording. Also using recordings for scholarship opportunities at non music schools some with requirements which have later dates… She is only applying to a few music schools. Her list is long but some of the schools have no additional essays on the common app.