<p>We received a phone call from the Admissions Office a few days ago. I don't want to reveal the name of the school for the sake of my privacy, but let's just say that it's a pretty selective NE boarding school that is high on my son's list. </p>
<p>They basically asked us how much my son would be willing to go to their school. They asked us "where" it would be on his list in terms of how much he wants to go. I panicked a little, of course, and gave a very vague answer. </p>
<p>Is this normal for them to call up applicants' parents and ask these things? Are they really that much worried about the yield, or do you think they are looking for donations? </p>
<p>For my older children, some boarding schools HAVE called their schools and their teachers to question the same thing. But never directly to us. What's going on?</p>
<p>they probably really like your son but your applying to an even more top tier school so they want to know if your son really wants to attend or if it's just a safety school and if you told them that he really wants to go, they'll accept him, or if not theyll waitlist or reject</p>
<p>..I doubt that. They may REALLY like someone but a top-tier school wouldn't call someone practically begging? Any parents with experience correct me if I'm wrong, cuz I very well could be.</p>
<p>Admission offices stay out of soliciting for donations.</p>
<p>I would say it is extremely odd for an admission office to call a prospective parent to ask a question like that, especially before applications are even due to most schools. </p>
<p>As you said, admission offices will often call the applicant's school or those who filled out his/her recommendations, but never the applicant's family directly. As in poker, you never want to "show your hand."</p>
<p>They did this because they didn't know. Every interviewer asked this question... BUT one time an interviewer didn't. AS I WAS LEAVING, he asked me that question because the school requires this. That is especially important during years with financial troubles. Read about Yield Protection.</p>
<p>Maybe they did call the teachers and couldn't get a satisfactory response? I was called three times by one admissions officer at a HADES school and he talked to both of my parents. He explained what the school wanted and asked if that "aligned with my interests and intentions".</p>
<p>italianboarder, but I don't think that's a standard question to ask. Did all schools ask you either in the interview or after where their school is on your list? Not my experience anyway.</p>
<p>None of my schools asked me this during my interviews, and I hope I shouldn't be worried about that. It seems a little sleazy that they'd ask that though.</p>
<p>My two alumni interviewers both had to list it. All of my interviewers tried to ask this in an.. Inconspicuous way. I avoided this twice by saying, "I'm really learning more about every school by visiting. I've only visited two schools so far, but I'm really getting a good feel of the enviroment that is unique to every school." </p>
<p>Every single interview asked me either:
1. Lets say you are accepted to every school, where would "X" school rank on your list of where you would want to go?
I WAS ALSO ASKED(Once): Would you be miserable if you only got into X since it is so far down on your list? Would you be less enthusiatic to embrace the opportunity?-- I said it would be a blessing to be given the opportunity to attend that school and then I rattled off reasons. He was really happy that I turned that question around.
2. Why do you want this opportunity and how important is it to you? Why this school over other schools? What would you do? What would it represent to you?
3. What is the most important aspect, for you personally, of X that made you interview here? How important is that to you? Did any other schools have that aspect?</p>
<p>I've got that phone call too. But it was like five years ago.
It was a rejection phone call, actually. They were telling my parents that they weren't gonna let me in. They wanted to "waitlist" me.
But at the time, I was attending a junior boarding school, and the admission process is a lot different for those, so it was probably a different situation.</p>
<p>I didn't get a call from admissions but did receive one from the parent of a current student a few days ago. He wanted to know if I had any questions about their experience with the school but this question quickly morphed into how my S application process is going, his thoughts about the school, etc. I gave some fairly crafted answers so as not to reveal where our true interests lie. Knowing that he would likely feed this info back to the admissions rep, I did everything I could to use this 5 minutes to our advantage. </p>
<p>I did get the sense however, that these calls were fairly typical. At least for this school.</p>
<p>This seems highly irregular. I can imagine the schools trying to measure interest of an applicant but.... I thought they would go through the guidance department of the current school. I guess in these times it may really make sense to have a lot of "face time" at your first choice school in terms of attending sporting events, etc.</p>
<p>Grejuni- I think the fact that he's has two very strong hooks working for him as well as a stellar academic record contributed to the heavily to the inquiry. I sort of expected these type of calls post 3/10 but not before...</p>
<p>Watertester - It's a NE mid-sized boarding school however, he already has his heart set on a few others schools so we'll see...</p>
<p>We also got a 'current parent' phone call during my son's app process. The parent spoke with my husband for about 1/2 hour. Coach was very interested in S; he and my husband went to observe practices and games. Never thought for a second he would end up waitlisted. It was a shock. However, as it was child #1 to go through the BS process, I wonder now what would have happened if we had called and said that it was our first choice - instead of calling within 1 day and yanking him off the list.</p>