Is it normal to get a parent of an alumni for boarding schools? I thought it was always admission officers…
I don’t know how often it happens but my son was interviewed by a parent at one school he had applied to - he said it was a similar experience as when he was interviewed by someone from an admissions office. I don’t think it particularly hurt or helped his chances for acceptance.
Ok! I was curious.
Never heard of that! But I know lots of schools have "parent ambassadors"who are volunteers in their admissions office and at open houses/admitted student events.
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at my school we have parent ambassadors that will call applicants parents, but the student’s interview is usually an adult working at the school, often in admissions.
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My daughter was interviewed by an alumni parent at one school when she was in the application cycle two years ago. It may be purely coincidental, but it was her worst interview by far. She did not connect to the interviewer, who asked lots of close-ended questions, like she did with the AOs at other schools to which she applied.
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Our experience was the same. Wondering if this is a no already meeting which is why we got parent alumni and they only interview candidates who are already in the reject pile?
I suspect this school had more interviews scheduled than could be handled by the AO staff. My daughter had not submitted any part of her application, test scores or transcript at the time of the interview so I think it was just luck of the draw.
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Also, I’m sure there are wonderful and engaging parent alumni interviewers. We just didn’t happen to have one.
My daughter had alumni parent interviewers for Choate this cycle. My guess is that some of the schools with a high volume of applications are doing this for Zoom interviews. I was disappointed that she didn’t have a “real” AO for the interview; however, she was delighted with the conversation!
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