I recently spoke to a very bright student who was applying to all of the top private high schools in NYC. She is very well-traveled, a dancer, actor, athlete, artist, and involved in a debate club. During an interview, when she was asked about her interests outside of school, she panicked and replied, “Television.”

Admission interviews can be a stressful process for children, mostly because they don’t have jobs, which means they have never been on an interview before. A little bit of preparation can ensure that the interview goes smoothly and that nerves are quelled. In my experience, helping a child to prepare for an interview is always fun! Help your child to draft out strong answers to the following questions:

1. What would you like to tell me about yourself?

2. Why do you want to transfer to this school?

3. What is your favorite subject? What is your least favorite subject?

4. What are your interests outside of school?

5. What is your family like? Siblings? Pets?

6. What is your favorite family vacation?

7. If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why? (Yes, this is a common interview question for elementary-, middle-, and high-school level applicants.)

8. What teams, activities, and/or clubs are you currently a member of or involved with?

9. Can you tell me about a time when you overcame a problem in school?

10. At the end of the interview, the interviewer will always ask if your child has any additional questions, so have your child prepare some intelligent questions.

*Remind your child not to be nervous. The interviewer is going to be very warm and friendly, because they always are.

*Remind your child to be himself/herself and that the interviewer is going to really like him/her.

*Remind your child not to fiddle and not to use worlds such as, “like” or “umm.”

*Remind your child to make eye-contact and to shake hands.

*Remind your child to greet the interviewer and to say thank you at the end.

*Remind your child to not say anything too negative about their current school. (Wanting to transfer because you love the school that you are interviewing for is a much better answer than wanting to transfer because you hate your current school and all of the teachers.)

*Don’t have your child memorize answers to these questions, but have him/her become familiar with the types of questions that could be asked and what a good answer would look like.

*Empower your child by preparing them to the point where he/she is self-confident.