Now that most of us have completed our applications and interviews, I’m curious to know. What was your interview technique?
I know some kids who studied the school religiously before their interview; even researched their interviewer if they knew beforehand. They had pre-planned answers and a list of points to talk about. Other kids flew in completely blind.
For me, I did a decent amount of research into every school (specifically what I liked about them). I really just pre-planned my answer to the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” and let it flow from there. What I talked about greatly depended on the school, their mission statement, etc.
So, please feel free to discuss. How did you handle your interviews?
I searched about what I liked in the schools that I could relate to my experiences and current activities. I also got a semi planned answer for the “Tell me about yourself” and “Biggest challenge”. I prefered to not plan too muchand just really be myself. In one of my best ones, I talked about books for 15/20 minutes and in some other ones I mentioned Taylor Swift and Gilmore Girls haha. I talked about my dog, dinner time, roller skating,running, baking, my dog. I just LOVED interviews.
I planned a couple questions: “Why this school?” and “Tell me about yourself.” We talked about lots of things in interviews like science, calculus, traveling, books, Arabic, music/musicians (Taylor Swift among others haha @mirroballing) and even my relative’s wedding that’s coming up. I was pretty nervous but they were a lot of fun and the interviewers were very good.
My advice for future interviewers is very generic but true nevertheless-- be yourself. They already know your extracurriculars and awards, but this time they get to put a person to an app and it helps them decide whether or not you’ll be a good fit for the school.
I planned for “why boarding school” and what I liked about the school. My interviews were mostly about my interests and my family. It was probably better that I didn’t plan the whole conversation out and let it flow. I even wore my lucky 1989 Taylor’s Version hoodie for most of them
I studied the school before hand for the programs I’m interested in (STEM, Music, Swimming etc) but otherwise I asked my friends who attend the school what happened recently at the school like was there a big event (For Exeter I talked about Exeter Andover weekend with my interviewer since my friend warned me beforehand).
Otherwise I didn’t really do anything else for it except for having 5 major things I want to talk about during my interview, things that I think can show the best of me (Like I talked with my interviewer about my math and the hardships of this years math class vs the math achievements I got for like 20-30 minutes). And I dressed with a dress shirt, khaki, and a blazer.
I think for me going in mostly blind helped since I could be my authentic self not some scripted answer I made before hand, which I think helped me have some good interviews.
Yeah I totally get what you mean. I was given a list of popular questions and pre-planned answers for all of them. But after my first interview I decided to just forget about them and genuinely talk about the interests I’m most passionate about.
Yeah, I feel like the questions I got were kinda random though. Like for a few schools I got asked “If you were stranded on a deserted island for a year, what 3 items will you bring” and “If you had a genie pop out and said you had 3 wishes, what would the wishes be?” stuff like that.
I’m cross-stitching the Evermore album cover art for my daughter to hang in her boarding school dorm room! Also, just bought my ticket to go see TS later this year - super excited!
Small talk is not my forte so I prepared points that I wanted to make and practiced the ‘why us?’ and ‘why bs?’. I also did research and related something the school offered to something that I am currently doing, like their art program and my independent art. That’s pretty much it. I asked some ‘unique’ questions to be remembered (bc I am mediocre at best with talking)
We live overseas and there were plenty of tickets left for her Asia dates for about $300 a couple months ago (not as many now). Much better than the $2000++ we saw when we looked for US dates!
Did kinda the same, and during Andover interview I just suddenly had that question in my mind for no reason and I asked about weekends. it seemed pretty fun
After I set up for the interview, I researched the school in the ten minutes I had before it started. I had already read their curricula, academics pages, etc. while deciding on my list, but it helped to find something unique about the school.
During the interview, I was extremely nervous. My hands were shaking and my heart was beating out of my chest. But, apparently, it didn’t show to the interviewer, a few of which said I seemed confident.
