We do a lot of free seminars for the public at Collegewise, both as invited guests and at our own events. Sometimes a family in attendance will consistently interrupt with questions, often very specific to their student. We love engaged attendees, but sometimes the vibe feels more adversarial than it does engaged. Since I’ve seen this happen to other private counselors and to high school counselors, I thought I’d share how we handle those situations here.
First, while you need to be polite, you owe it to the rest of your audience not to let a family like this hijack your seminar. People came to hear you speak, not to hear someone else get all of their specific questions answered. A couple ways you can handle this:
1. Stop calling on them. If lots of other people have questions, spread the wealth and let everyone else have a chance.
2. If they continuously interrupt, ask them to hold their questions until the end of each section, and promise to come back to them.
If that doesn’t work and they keep interrupting, first, acknowledge that they are asking good questions.
You're actually doing a great job of highlighting just how frustrating and complicated this process can be. There should be a straightforward, accessible answer to them, but there just isn't.
There should be a straightforward, accessible answer to them, but there just isn't.
I don't know you at all and there's just no way I can answer a question like that in 30 seconds without learning a lot more about you, and your strengths and weaknesses as an applicant. Right now, I'd just be guessing, and I don't want to do that.
Then invite them to speak to you after the seminar:
Please see me after the seminar and I'd be happy to talk with you more about this. But for now, I need to move on.
Don't ask, "Is that okay?" Don't even wait for a response. Just forge ahead.
You’re being polite. You’re not ducking the question (you’ve invited them to come see you afterwards). And your audience will respect and appreciate what you’re doing.
Alexandria Johnson says
Kevin – would you, or one of your counselors, consider giving a seminar (free?) to a group of homeschooler in Johnson County, KS (suburb of Kansas City)?
Alexandria Johnson
Kevin McMullin says
Thanks for asking, Alexandria. We don’t have an office in Kansas City yet, but when we do in the future, we’d love to do something like that.