Hi. Does anyone know how much the different prep schools (probably Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Brooks School) look at the parents in the interview and application process? I was thinking I should udpate my online profiles such as my LinkedIn profile. Are there others you would suggest?
In addition, I am a marketing and web design consultant, but have not had my own web site for several years. (I work predominantly for one client, so I rarely have the need for a web site to help me pursue new clients.) Should I take the time to create a web site for my marketing business, since prep schools research parents of applicants? Or do they not research the parents?
Thanks so much!
Yes, the parents have an interview, but as far as I know they just want to gauge the following things: What is the family environment like(supportive, demanding, whatever else it may be), and Who really wants to go to the school? Are the parents taking charge of everything, or do they show far more interest in the school than the kid actually applying does? I have friends at Andover who are from all different backgrounds. Something tells me they don’t really care what specific jobs(i.e. LinkedIn profile) the parent holds. Just for example, I can talk about a few of my friends I have here at Andover. One comes from a family where the father is a convenience store clerk and the mother works as a maid. Another has a dad who is an Army Officer working at NATO. Another has parents who are both teachers. The basic idea from this is that the school is basically suing the parents to get a different gauge on the kid. I really do not think the AO’s would be doing specific research into the parents.
I think the only “research” they do on parents is to assess whether they are development prospects. If you don’t already have an online presence as a philanthropist of some means, I don’t think they really care what it is that you do for a living.
It gets to fit issues, support issues, and to some extent, how well you know your kid’s strength and weaknesses. In all but one case, we had separate parent interviews (ie, without our kid). Never once did job come up and we have zero LinkedIn presence.
I think that parents interviews are a relatively new thing–I don’t think they happened 25 years ago and they certainly don’t happen for college–and they are really meant for the parents to be able to ask questions and for the school to identify any true (negative) parent outliers.
To @MABlue’s point, the AO’s have no time to research the parents pre-interview. To the extent you’re an alum or a “known person” that’s a little different, and you may get handled a little differently (such as the Dean of Admissions or a more seasoned AO). Similarly, we saw that URMs or International applicants got additional handling from an AO who may be from more similar backgrounds. In a few cases, we got AOs who had regional responsibility for our part of the country and had them in BS fairs, so they had a broad sense of the economic wherewithal of the community, but again–it never came up.
Don’t worry about it.
@Mr.Wendal Believe it or not, the college I am going to next year had a part of the interview session with my parents. Though I agree on the whole most colleges don’t even interview the actual applicants most of the time, much less the parents. I guess the other thing a parent interviews allows for is for the AO to see if the parents are helicopter parents.
Thanks, everyone. This is very helpful information!
Helicopter parents is probably in there somewhere… if parents are going to constantly play unhappy customer or freak out about letting the school take the wheel… that would be a red flag … but mostly it’s a chance to have an adult advocate for the kid which is a great thing. Enjoy
Ha ha. Okay, this is all good to know, and all of you have saved me work because I now feel I don’t have to build an unnecessary web site. 
I think it would be worthwhile to tidy up your online profiles. During committee evaluations, they almost always look at the parents educational levels, background, and potential to be a development case. As others have said, they like to take students from a wide variety of backgrounds, and not just upper class students.
The AO may never look you up online, but its so easy to update your LinkedIn, why not.
Be polite to everyone when you visit. Boarding schools are communities. Being rude to the secretaries or tour guides, for example, is not a good idea.
Development case: ADMIT
Helicopter parents: NO ADMIT
My kids’ prep applications included asking our education and work. So they knew. It wasn’t about $ development but about the parents’ commitment to their education. (And that can come at various SES levels, without helicoptering.) Clean up your online, sure. But your kid won’t be admitted based on your artistic skills. More important will be how you actually present when meeting any of them- crazy to keep up with the Joneses, get your kid into an elite? Or calmly focused on the educ and growth opps?
All of the boarding school DS applied had a parent interview following one with DS. I think the main purpose of the parent interview is to get to know the applicant better, find out if parents are supportive and if they need FA. Totally negative impression made by the parent can affect the admission in the same direction.