I guess I will kinda share my experience from my St. Paul interview today, here goes nothing…
I did an online interview with one of the Senior Associate Dean of Admissions / Director of Financial Aid of St. Paul’s School. I expected it to be soso, not anything surprising or clicking with the interviewer whatsoever. However, the interviewer basically took no notes from the very first question, I guess that was already a sign of rejection. So no notes, only chatting, and showed almost no interest in things I mention, my hobbies, ECs and stuff (You can check my earlier post for chance mes abt stuff I put in to applications). It went for 19 minutes, haha.
I also noticed their name in the meeting was exact copy of my full name(seriously), not sure if its any tech issues(maybe on their side), and simply didn’t catch their name as well. Towards the end of the interview, they told me to just check the website by myself and email them if I had any questions and wait for M10. yeh
yup thanks for making it to the end
I wonder if anyone experienced similar situations in interviews? or what do you think?
My DS had a virtual interview back in the Fall with the Associate Dean of admin and his experience was similar. Also when we visited the school the admin department seemed very cold. One of the fellow interviewers shared that they had a similar experience. So don’t read too much into it.
DS’s SPS interview was awful too. During the parent session when the AO read back how it went, we had to question whether they interviewed a different kid. That was the only school out of six where this happened. There seemed to be a real lack of curiosity. The parent interview consisted mostly of the AO talking to us and not listening. As parents we learned a lot from that interview.
I definitely wouldn’t take no notes as a rejection.
This persona may never take notes and always write stuff up immediately. You have no idea their process… they may have had a busy day and only 30 minutes (19 for talk and 10 to write up notes) is all they had.
I know it is VERY hard but don’t try so hard to analyze things you can’t really analyze:)
@bogicat I interview candidates as part of my day job, and I often do not take notes during an interview. Instead, once the interview has concluded I reflect and write up my notes. I also have formed my opinion 5 minutes into the interview, so don’t read into how long the interview is. The length means nothing. Finally, if he seemed uninterested, it may be that he has interview fatigue since so many were interviewed before you- and this doesn’t mean that he won’t put you in the admit bucket but just that he is ready to be done with all interviews for this cycle.
My daughter’s virtual interview last year with Emma Willard lasted about 15-20 minutes. I could hear the whole thing and it was pretty awful. They also didn’t ask to speak with a parent and didn’t talk about my daughter’s hobbies or anything. We thought there was a zero percent chance of admission because there was no rapport or apparent interest. Come March 10, she was admitted! So, as others have said, it could be a variety of things from personality/style of interviewer to fatigue or distraction from something else that made it a “dud”. There is still a chance.
Congrats! I am trying not to read into any of the things I experienced, but SPS interview was definitely something different than other schools so I wanted to share that
Just to add a different perspective. I had an interview where AO was too focused on taking notes. His head was down for basically the entire interview and he wrote down practically everything I said. Despite this it didn’t seem like he was actually paying attention. He just ran down the list of pre-prepared questions and sent me on my way.
I don’t think it’ll hurt my application really but I also don’t think it’ll help much. Sometimes you’re just another activity to cross off on a very long to-do list, I didn’t take it personally.
I think SPS’s online interviews are just all pretty short in general (mine went for a bit more than 22 minutes). In terms of your interviewer, I would say that is pretty odd. My interviewer was fine. She took notes, asked if my parents had questions (to which i kindly responded with a no since my parents do not speak much English), and said stuff like “oh i think you will be a great addtions to our community” or “seems like you know us quite well” (appears quite generic to me). Anyways, I don’t think you should worry about the length of your interview, and good luck!
good luck to you too! i wouldn’t give much hope for sps because I’m sure the interview won’t make my app any better sooo ye lets just all wait for the magic on M10…
My quick take is that this doesn’t sound like an “awful” interview. Not taking notes might be a specific choice to have a conversation and then just write an overall note after it’s over…like a choice to be “in the moment” not writing.
Quick interviews honestly mean they are just busy, IME.
Parent interviews someone mentioned: actually several of the ones we did felt more like “hey let me give you feedback on your kid” more than anything else. Not all were like that but enough to know that this is definitely a thing, and it means nothing about admissions.
Seriously – do NOT make bets about admission based on interview analysis. Trust me, some of the weirdest interview experiences led to admission offers, for all of my kids, and for MANY people posting over the years I’ve been on CC.
I think virtual interviews are tricky. They kind of flatten the experience so that whatever you are you seem more that way. Someone who is slightly reserved reads as downright cold, for example. I think this is probably understood.