Resources for Academic Success

Keep in mind that boarding schools are communities and that the admissions office is tasked with building a diverse community. They are looking for a variety of students with different interests, strengths and personalities.

While an application will capture a student's awards, achievements and interests, there is nothing like an in-person interview for an admissions officer to get to know a student and get a feel for how they will fit into a particular school’s community.

Like the college process, each part of the boarding school process in intended to tell the admissions committee about the applicant. Unlike the university process where not all schools require interviews, interviews are a required part of the boarding school application. As you are aware there are several qualified Asian students for each available spot at US boarding schools, so once a student has been deemed academically suitable for a school, the interview becomes one of the most important parts of the application process and a key way for students to distinguish themselves. 

A good interview is a two-way conversation rather than a memorized response to certain typical questions.  For teens, talking about themselves with an adult can be difficult and stressful. Actually talking about yourself in a concise, eloquent manner takes practice. Students can come across as rehearsed and disingenuous, causing an admissions officer to not have full confidence in a particular student. Most interviews last no more than 30 minutes, which is not nearly enough time for students to share everything about themselves and a great deal of time if a student tells everything they have to tell about themselves in the first few minutes of the interview.

Initially, students tend to think that it is quite easy to talk about themselves and their accomplishments and do not prepare adequately for the student interview. While you have had months to prepare the other components of the application such as your essays and short answers, you may find it difficult to prepare, make corrections to, or revise your interview. Students should take their interview seriously and prepare for it like the other components of the application.

When preparing our students for interviews, we do not practice interview questions, but rather we want our students to understand the interview mindset.  You should think about your accomplishments, the challenges you faced, and what you learned from them.  Make sure that you have 3-4 main topics that you intend to cover in the interview.  Also, most boarding school admissions officers want to know why you want to go to boarding school, so you should prepare a meaningful response.

Keep in mind that admissions officers are evaluating your impact on the school community. They are thinking to himself or herself, “How would this student behave if I were coaching them?” “Would I want to have this student at my dining table for family style dinner?”  “How would this student contribute in the classroom, outside of the classroom?”  “Does he or she seem to have an academic passion and desire to try new things?” “How will he or she work and live with others?”

Sometimes interviews go just as planned and students are able to cover all that they want to; other times, like true conversations, students may get talking in depth on a topic that they are interested in or a shared interest with an admissions officer is uncovered and before they know it find that they are engrossed in a conversation and the interview time is up.

As the session starts to wrap up, most interviewers will ask the student if they have any questions. This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the school and further delve into which school may be the right fit. 

Most families visit many schools in a span of a week or so. You think you will remember the details of each school, but as time passes the particulars tend of fade. To help with this, we are sharing with you ARCH's My Boarding School Tracker that we provide to our counseling students to record their research as well as to track their visits. Feel free to use this to keep your personal boarding school journey relevant and organized.

What is referred to commonly as the parent interview is not really an interview. It is not meant to be evaluative. Having accompanied parents on hundreds of “parent interviews”, nearly 100% of the time, the admissions officer will start the parent conversation with a statement that goes something like: “This is not an interview, the purpose of our time together is so that you can ask questions.”  One very seasoned admissions officer defined the parent meeting quite well. She said, “The parent meeting is an opportunity for parents to tell me something about their child that I can not gain from reading his/her application.”