A school interview is important for private school admission. It helps staff understand the child and allows families to experience the school. Students may be asked about their goals, strengths, and why they want to attend. Preparation should include etiquette, practicing questions, honesty, and curiosity.
In addition to your application, recommendations, and test scores, a school interview is often a key factor in gaining private school admission. The applicant’s family is likely to be invited to the school both to look around and to have a conversation, formal or otherwise, with an admissions officer and/or other staff. Depending on the age of the child, the admissions officer may hold a private interview with the child or focus on talking to the parents.
A school interview can be beneficial to both parties: it helps school staff better understand who a child is. At the same time, since such interviews often take place in the school and may even include a school trip, the family can get the “feel” of the school far more than through its publicity material.
When students are old enough to be the key person in a school interview, they are often asked about their goals and aspirations, what they are looking for in a school, their previous educational experiences, their strengths and weaknesses, and why they believe this school will school is a good fit. As parents join the conversation, they may be asked to describe their child and why they see this school as a good match, as well as what they hope will change for their child through the experience at this school.
In preparing for a school interview, it’s a good idea to explicitly discuss with your child what the expectations are. This conversation should include interview etiquette, such as greeting, saying goodbye with thanks, shaking hands, and appropriate attire, which will depend on the style of the school. If your child is likely to be asked questions directly, you may want to practice, turning the topics from the previous paragraph into questions such as, “What are your educational goals?” or “Why do you think you would do well at X School?” and give your child a chance to formulate an answer.
Two other important elements to bring to a school interview are honesty and curiosity. If there’s one part of the interview that might be difficult for some reason, there’s nothing wrong with carefully preparing how best to lay it out. Instead of saying, “I got a D in French last quarter,” one could talk about the serious challenges of learning a language and how new approaches and techniques were now leading to improvements, if that’s the case. Besides being simple, showing an active interest in learning more about the school is also a good interview strategy. You may want your child to practice asking, as well as answering questions, even making a list, if that might be less stressful than trying to remember.
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