Until recently Deerfield Academy was my first choice for prep school. Recently that is, I had my interview. The experience was very strange, to say the least. My interviewer, to start with, would not so much as introduce himself and refused to shake my hand. I did not learn his name until I asked directly. He asked some basic questions and had no follow-ups. I feel like I did well, I displayed my familiarity with and specifically why it is my first choice. I talked about my experience spending summers on campus as part of their summer art programs, how I was excited about taking Arabic, and my interest in their constitutional law course. When it was time for me to ask him some questions, he could not bring himself to say a single positive thing about the school. He repeated at least 4 times, 3 times to me and once to my parents, that it is “just a high school” and “nothing special”. He told me the academics are “not what they used to be”. He did however have plenty of praise for other prep schools, telling me how amazing the other places I was applying were.
I would think I did something wrong, only his negativity and strangeness were present from the very start of the interview.
After my interview, I learned that one of my friends had had a similar experience with a different interviewer. My friend had been told by his interviewer that Deerfield isn’t looking for academically motivated people these days and that yes, there is a major drug problem.
What happened here? Is this a new interview technique? Has anyone else had this kind of experience? Were both the interviewers just burned out? Were they trying to soften the blow of the rejection letter they already had decided they were going to send me? Is this just how they treat middle-class white boys?
I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, have been taking APs since 9th grade. Applying for 11th, not opposed to a repeat 10th. I do lots of unique extracurriculars, including leading a 5-year-old local lit magazine. I wrote my essay about the marketplace of ideas and my short answer about materialistic determinism. I also have some connections to the school. If any of that helps anyone understand what is going on here.
Hi! I had a virtual interview and although I don’t think it was my best interview, it went well and it was nothing like yours. I’m sorry to hear about your experience! That is very odd.
Sounds like your interviewer was a dud. I wouldn’t read more into it than that. Some people should not be doing interviews for selective schools, full stop. He sounds like one of them. Maybe he didn’t feel great, or was in a rush, or was otherwise having a bad day.
Out of curiosity, did he say anything positive at all? Is it possible that you’re focusing on the perceived negative things he said and forgetting about the good things he did say? I ask because it does seem strange that he had only awful things to say.
Hi, I’m sorry to hear that your interview didn’t go that well. I had a in person interview, it went well and it wasn’t like yours. I think maybe your interviewer was just a bad person, maybe he had a bad day or maybe he was not feeling well.
I’m so sorry to hear about your experience, don’t take this one experience with your interview ruin your idea about Deerfield, it is a great place.
My DS went through 5 interviews so far. In three of them, the interviewers gushed over his extracurricular activities and there was amazing chemistry in the room. One of the interviews was such a dud my DS moved that school to last on his list and the other interview was unremarkable.
So we have seen both ends of the spectrum of interviews. In the end, I would advise my DS to not let the interaction with one person completely deter you from a school. It is a data point, though.
His comments about the school were vague at best. I was really looking for something positive to hold on to, but he didn’t have a single positive word to say.
There is nothing to read into. Its not an interviewing technique. It sounds like you just got a disgruntled employee. My son’s interview experience at Deerfield was a lot different.
But in the end, I agree that Deerfield is a high school, like many others. It is an excellent school, but don’t fall in love with it. There are plenty of others that you can do well at.
I just had my Deerfield interview and it was only 13 minutes. The interviewer did say it would be my easiest interview yet, but I didn’t expect it to be so short. Should I read into this?
That sounds awful. I’m sorry. It’s late in the season - you might just have an interviewer who feels “done”. We had what seemed like a very inexperienced interviewer at one school - he was pleasant but dull and all of us felt it was kind of useless. Thankfully others better represented the school. That’s why I think it is beneficial to go to open houses (virtual or in-person), school fairs, etc. to meet a variety of admissions and school reps. Gives you a much fuller picture.
I think it sounds like your interviewer was just a very bad one because no interviewer would say those things regardless of what the school was actually like.
I’m very sorry that you had to experience that. Good luck on your applications!
Sounds like a burnt out AO. Just keep forging ahead and don’t worry about this strange staff member. It seems like every school has one disgruntled/tired AO on staff.
My guess is it isn’t a senior/well regarded AO, and based on our experience, the less senior the AO, the less the interview will have any negative bearing on your application chances.
DA academics have never been stronger, so his comment seems off base.
Maybe he’s still upset he didn’t get cast in The Holdovers.
I know the bad encounters stick out in the mind. I had a parent who called me once about a school and that single encounter was so awful we didn’t attend. I still post about it. A few years later I told our good friend, the head of alumni at that school the exact quote, and after he picked himself off the floor from laughing he said he would happily do all the parenting calls himself because people just can’t be controlled but his kids are too old now.
Look. This was probably more like a burnt out AO. But keep your options open.
I have a slightly different take. While it certainly sounds like the OP got a horrible interviewer, I wouldn’t dismiss everything the latter said out of hand and just attribute it to his being disgruntled.
Sometimes paranoid people are right to be a little trepidatious. Similarly, sometimes disgruntled employees are right that there are problems with their employer that are not being addressed, or at least trends that the employee sees as negative.
In other words, while the interviewer went way overboard (unprofessionally, from what the OP said), there might be a hint of truth in what he conveyed.
While I certainly don’t think Deerfield is lacking in academics, the impression I get is that it does seem to care more than some of its peer schools about athletics and other things, possibly at the expense of slightly less potential academic prowess. One reason (not the only one) is that the average SAT score of its 2023 graduating class was 1382, which, while very high compared to most other schools (private or otherwise), is about 20 points below that of Choate (maybe not meaningful) and 49 points below that of Hotchkiss. (Other peer schools, like Andover, SPS and Exeter, don’t seem to be publishing their average SATs anymore.) I wouldn’t say that even the 50-point gap would be a huge deal or indicator, but I do think its big enough to suggest a slight difference in organizational priorities.
Dud interviewer. That being said, if you were very interested in Deerfield before the interview, don’t completely write it off. If you are accepted, you will be able to attend a revisit day to see if you feel a personal connection with the school.