When college admissions officers do information sessions on their campuses or at high schools, a lot of parents ask questions on behalf of their kids. The fact that a lot of parents approach the reps after the sessions and pepper them with more questions, leaving the kids standing sheepishly in the background, is something of an industry inside joke with admissions officers. It never sends a very good message about those kids’ preparedness for college.
There is nothing wrong with parents joining their kids at these sessions (when parents pay the bills, they have the right to learn more about the schools). And you should always feel free to ask an honest question if you have one. But don’t ask questions for your students. Let them approach the admissions officer afterward. It's endearing when a parent is relegated to the background while the kid takes charge. It's not endearing when those roles are reversed.
Terry Smith says
I agree that it is better to have the student go up rather than the parent and I would prefer that to happen, but in reality, with the hundreds of students and parents that go to these sessions, do you think that an admissions officer is going to remember that a particular student had their parent go up to them instead of the student themself? So would it actually have an impact on whether a student got in or not? If the question is a question that I have rather than a question that my son or daughter has, how would you propose getting the answer to the question?
Kevin McMullin says
A parent with a question should ask it. It’s the peppering–which almost always involves asking questions FOR the student–that’s not good (whether or not an admissions officer remembers it).
Vicki@collegeparentcentral says
Great advice. It might be helpful if parents and students talked ahead of time about some of the questions that could or should be asked. Helping the student prep and practice a few questions will give him more confidence to ask the question of the counselor. Students who realize, because they’ve had a conversation with parents ahead of time, that asking questions is important, may be more willing to ask the questions. Then, of course, parents just need to step back.