<p>I know that is poorly worded, but you get the gist. I have been making calls to parents of accepted students at Mercersburg and I am curious if other schools also do this. The parents I have spoken with have been very grateful for the call and had tons of questions. I think it helps sometimes to get a parents' perspective.</p>
<p>Anyone else either making these type of calls or on the receiving end?</p>
<p>zp</p>
<p>Funny, the TSAO schools’ non-contact agreement extends into this window between acceptances by schools and family decisions. They are able to contact you by email, but NOT by phone expressly, unless you initiate contact first. The rational is that kids have a hard enough time making a decision without adults from different schools calling and giving them a sales pitch.</p>
<p>We are NOT finding the same to be true with NON-TSAO schools. Calls from AOs, offers to talk to school families, etc. Have not had a “parent conversation” as you describe it with any of these schools yet, but I’m interested. DC has a hard choice to make so to me it’s all useful information for the hopper, BUT I am glad C doesn’t have to fend off courtesy calls between now and revisits. I can see C is overwhelmed and needs a “cooling” period before revisits.</p>
<p>My parents just received a call from a parent of a current Middlesex student who lives in our area.</p>
<p>We have received calls from parents, AD’s, and coaches. It is very helpful in making our decision and a nice gesture.</p>
<p>Have not received any calls since the letters arrived. I did get a call from a “parent ambassador” shortly before apps were due from one school, and another call from a parent at a different school during the waiting period before March 10th. I think they were trying to gauge our interest in the school, certainly the second call. I had a great conversation with that mom, and my son was admitted to that school and it is right up at the top of his list, so I intend to give her a ring myself (she kindly gave me her number). These are not GLADCHEMMS schools.</p>
<p>We don’t mind the e-mails but I don’t think we would be real receptive to phone calls yet. My child is using this week to kind of “marinate” and absorb the decisions in front of her. We are away, but I notice that she is finding the time to re-visit the websites of the schools where she was accepted. We have asked her to let us know where she wants to re-visit by Sunday, the 20th. We’ll set those up next week. Think this is a time for the applicants to do some serious thinking. We would feel stressed fielding calls from parents or AO’s right now.</p>
<p>yeah i find all these calls from parents and AOs to be quite annoying</p>
<p>We haven’t received any emails or calls. Maybe they consider I am so far in their bags to have any way out :/)</p>
<p>I have not gotten any calls, but the school (Hill) sent us notice about an agreement among schools that prohibited a lot of contact during this decision time.</p>
<p>OTOH, I have been making some calls to HS seniors on behalf of my university, to accepted students!</p>
<p>Wife reports a call from a current parent today, non TSAO…I appreciate the contact and will probably call back with a few specific questions.</p>
<p>Some of the questions I’ve received would have been awkward to ask an ao. For example:</p>
<p>Are kids on FA treated differently than other students?</p>
<p>How much money does your child spend a month?</p>
<p>What is the dating scene like, (asked by parents of daughters)</p>
<p>What about drugs and alcohol?</p>
<p>Are swimmers recognized there?</p>
<p>How do you keep in touch with your daughter?</p>
<p>How good is the lacrosse team?</p>
<p>How bad is the lacrosse team?</p>
<p>Does the school nickel and dime you to death?</p>
<p>Is the town safe?</p>
<p>What does she do on weekends?</p>
<p>Almost without exception, all the questions seemed to be more about the personal side of boarding school, not the academics. Judging from our conversations, I know that the parents I spoke with felt much more educated, if not relieved, by the call. This doesn’t mean that all the kids will end up at my daughter’s school, but at least her school knows the parents had lots of information upon which to base a decision.</p>
<p>zp</p>
<p>We’ve received a list of parents who are willing to receive calls from one school, and a parent called from another school. Most of the schools are on vacation at present, so I’d expect other parents to call or email in the weeks to come. </p>
<p>So far, much of the contact has been through our personal social network. We have reached out to parents among our acquaintances. Our daughter has answered questions about her school from family friends as well.</p>
<p>We got a call from a current parent from Groton. We did however send our deposit and contract already so maybe that’s why. It was a congratulations and can I answer any questions call. I really appreciated it.</p>
<p>Our school (Boston University Academy) typically asks current parents to make calls to the families of accepted students. I’ve done it in past years and had the following reactions:
<p>As far as I can tell, our school doesn’t do this to gauge interest, but just to try to help prospective families. The school does not , typically, call families. </p>
<p>If you don’t get a call, it probably means nothing at all other than your assigned caller goofed up. </p>
<p>I usually just start by saying who I am and that I’m calling to offer to answer any questions. I think this is pretty standard - there is no hard sell or desire to increase stress.</p>
<p>If you get such a call, it is fine to let the caller know that you aren’t interested in the school at this point.</p>