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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I volunteer for admissions and am so curious what people ask the actual staff so I often try to listen in!

Most of the questions people ask the staff at big events are totally inappropriate and belong in a different forum- like an email or a phone call. Many of the questions should be asked of current parents instead in a 1:1 setting at an open house or tour.

[b]#1 question is “my kid is gifted and is going to be at x level in math, so what are you going to do to meet their needs?”. Everyone sincerely believes that no one else has a kid who is gifted in math and that asking a question like this is putting their kid in a good light.
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Other standard questions, most of which I think are fine:

-sibling admission questions (especially if one sibling is in an intake year but one is older/younger and isn’t)
-off-cycle admissions questions (like they just moved and want to join asap)
-questions about transportation or community if they live far away or off the beaten path
-questions about how the religious parts of the curriculum work (we at a non-parish Catholic school)
-questions trying to suss out fit, especially around sports or arts if their kid is sporty or artsy 
-our school puts zero emphasis on testing and assessments, but we get a ton questions about test results, ERB scores, etc- [b]we live in a community with a growing Asian and South Asian expat population so there’s some cultural gaps to cover around the value of testing and results-oriented education.[/b] We do have volunteers who are 1st gen who try to pull these parents aside and give them a quick 101 on our school. One nearby private actually hosts a separate info session in mandarin to help families understand their school’s philosophy.[/quote]

How else would you prefer they ask the question, PP? My oldest is a math normie, but my second is, indeed, advanced in math. I put her in public, where she did Algebra 1 in 6th, and now she's in high school and doing well. You're allergic to the word "gifted", which I can sympathize with, but please understand that's just a shorthand for parents who may not be able to otherwise describe their kid because they're not education professionals - but they know what their kid is capable of.

Also, your reaction to the math question and your adjacent comment about Asian populations is a little... tendentious. Math tracks (which may not be what your school does) actually do depend on math test scores. It's the most effective way of predicting which students will hack it in advanced classes. Please try not to sneer at Asian nations who have built math and STEM powerhouses. STEM research labs in the US, both private and publicly-funded, are full of Asians, born here or born abroad. They have contributed in a major way to US patent dominance and tech competitiveness.

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