Making the Most of Accepted Student Days

Helpful advice for accepted students and their families

For some accepted students, Govs is your first choice, and you are attending Accepted Student Days (ASD) to meet your future classmates. For other accepted students, you are considering several schools, and you are attending ASD to learn more about Govs and envision your future in Byfield. Regardless of your sense before you arrive on campus, you might benefit from being intentional about your approach. I will start with some pragmatic suggestions and then offer more strategic advice.

Dress comfortably

While everyone at Govs hopes for a beautiful spring day, it’s April in New England, and you should be prepared for any type of weather: rain, wind, sunshine…or snow. Our classroom dress for students is comfortable and casual; please dress similarly. I encourage you to wear comfortable shoes—while we don’t use all 460 acres of our campus, we aren’t a one-building school, either.

Prepare for a busy day with time together and apart

Students and parents/guardians will start and end their days together. Students will spend time with a student host, attending classes and all school meeting, eating lunch, and hanging out in the student center. Parents/guardians will attend a class and panels and hear from our Head of School over lunch. Parents/guardians will have choices to make as to which class and panels to attend, so be sure to check your folder when you arrive. Both students and parents/guardians will attend a student panel, an afternoon program/activities fair, and an ice cream social in the afternoon. Your day at Govs will end with tours of our dorms and the new Alfond Coastal Research Center for those who want them.

Bring an appetite

As you arrive, a continental breakfast will be available—the coffee is hot, and the cider donuts are awesome! Students will enjoy lunch in our dining hall with their student hosts, and yes, Seven Layer Bars will be available for dessert. Parents/Guardians will eat lunch while listening to remarks from our Head of School and Academy President. And finally, there is an ice cream social in the afternoon which surely means sunshine and smiles!

Take time to talk and time to listen

When you arrive, there will be members of the Govs family there to greet you. Be sure to check their name tag for the role the person plays and ask them questions. There will be a moment when I thank you for being you; in delivering these remarks you will note that I amplify the priorities of our school. Be sure to listen to whether that fits what you value. What you have done more than anything in life is to go to school. When you visit classes, be sure to pay attention to the content, certainly, but watch for how material is delivered and how students engage. In many cases, you know what it is that you do better than your peers. Be sure to ask questions about the programs that align with those skills, interests, and passions, but know that who you will be and what you will be good at or care about will be different in two, three, or four years, so you should also listen to descriptions of other programs and get a sense of what you will be able to try that is new. Finally, write down tough questions and ask them of your host, student and faculty panelists, or others that you meet on campus.

Each summer the Admission Team talks about and affirms what it is we want to learn from prospective students’ interviews. Then we build the questions that we think will elicit the most helpful and meaningful answers. Every five years we go through a process of considering what we want to learn from your responses to our application questions. Then we build the questions and test them on Govs students. You are about to make a big decision. I would suggest that you think about what you want to know and learn. Then build the questions you want to ask at Govs or any school. It is not about the question. It is about the information the questions bring forth. Be thoughtful. Be greedy. We want your best questions as we are confident that if you join us, you will learn our why and be ready to help future accepted students choose Govs.

Author: Mike Kinnealey, Assistant Head of School and Dean of Enrollment