<p>This thread is addressed to all you parents of newly accepted students and parents of students currently attending boardings schools.</p>
<p>I'm curious to find out if any of you receive calls in the next week from parents of current students at any of your schools. </p>
<p>We received a very nice call last year from a very helpful parent, so we volunteered for that duty for this year. Basically, what we will be doing is calling a handful of parents of newly accepted students and offering our help and experiences at the school in answering any questions they have about the school. In our situation, we were given parents of girl hockey players as they may have questions we might be better suited to answer than other parents.</p>
<p>I think this is a nice touch as well as good salesmanship for a school. I think we were chosen for this duty as we have been very positive towards the school during the year and are generally considered what they like to model as far as having a good and happy student.</p>
<p>Now I realize that many of the highly competitive schools don't need such stuff to ensure matriculation by their accepted students, but I think it goes a long way to make the whole experience better.</p>
<p>Interesting. I never knew there was an agreement between schools to not contact families during the decision period.</p>
<p>I realize that some families may not want to be called on behalf of any school during this period and would most definitely not want to interfere in any family decision.</p>
<p>I realize that the school could very well have passed us just basic information about families that were given our contact information, so we could be available, but this particular school would rather us initiate the contact.</p>
<p>BTW, Can you give me an idea which schools might be part of this group?</p>
<p>Hi Goaliedad - I think that getting a call is a great touch - I sure hope we get one. S was accepted at Exeter and he may be ok but I have a million questions.</p>
<p>About now the tables have turned with regards to who is nervous. </p>
<p>Before March 10th, the kids were the nervous ones. Now that the acceptances are in our hands, it is the parents who become nervous as the reality of our kids going away to school becomes more concrete. We are the ones who seek assurance that this is the right school for our kid. </p>
<p>The kids don't know what they are about to experience and don't worry about things 6 months in the future. So they are just happy and relieved.</p>
<p>I would say if you don't hear anything by the Monday, you might want to call Exeter's admissions office and ask if they have any parents who would like to answer questions from a parent's experience. </p>
<p>Personally, I think this is a great way to break the ice and build a better parent community. And just because it is boarding school doesn't mean parental involvement isn't important.</p>
<p>Last year I requested names of parents I could call with questions. This was before revisits. During revist days, there were many current parents eager to answer questions.</p>
<p>Over the summer, my son got 2 letters from 12th graders offering to help and answer questions. I got a call from another parent.</p>
<p>I think it must stem from recruiting and sports but here's the 10 schools:
Choate, Deerfield, Hill, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis, Andover, Exeter, St. Paul's and Taft.</p>
<p>here's what it says:
The ten schools listed below(above) believe students are under increasing pressure to accept offers of admission.
In order to reduce this pressure on admitted students between March 10 and April 10, influence by alumni/alumnae, parents, faculty and present students must be reasonablr and held to a minimum, and in all cases should be coordinated through admission offices. School representatives may initiate contact though letter, fax or e-mail. Admitted students are welcome to contact school representatives in order to have their questions answered.
The ten shools also adhere to the common reply date of April 10, the date by which students must notify all the schools to which they have been accepted of their intent to enroll or not enroll. </p>
<p>---then in the admissions letter it said something to the effect of this is why we won't be pestering you but don't take it as a sign that we don't want you because we do</p>
<p>I can understand why the 10 schools don't engage in direct parental contact. They really don't need to sell themselves as most families would do just about anything to get their child accepted to any of these schools.</p>
<p>And these schools all work hard to manage their yield. The last thing they need to do is engage in a war of poaching of other schools' applicants. It is not helpful to the goal of getting just the right students in the door to have an unseemly raiding of talent.</p>
<p>It would be nice though if they would make it a policy of giving out a volunteer family contact (or 2) up front to prospective parents who would like a family's perspective. Many people would rather not call the admissions office to get such information as they may be embarassed to have a question that they'd rather get a family input on.</p>