Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 22:35     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason why we never considered private school.


Why are you on this forum, then, and why would you read this thread, let alone respond to it?
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 22:17     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Our Catholic school required us to fill out a long application form with a number of questions. The emphasis is definitely not on academic pedigree and career, and more on making sure the families are a good fit for the school community (and we do have a super nice community at our school, so obviously they did a great job).
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 21:46     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The question Admission Office would like answered is are these parents going to be problems for the administration or faculty if we admit their kid.


This. They’re primarily trying to screen out parents who will be PITAs.


+1.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 21:45     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:The question Admission Office would like answered is are these parents going to be problems for the administration or faculty if we admit their kid.


Yes—being considered either nice or totally neutral is what you want to achieve. If you appear problematic, it will hurt your child’s admissions process.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 21:36     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:The question Admission Office would like answered is are these parents going to be problems for the administration or faculty if we admit their kid.


This. They’re primarily trying to screen out parents who will be PITAs.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 21:30     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
They care about their yield and want families who really want to be at the school and are likely to accept their offer. They also want families who value the school’s educational philosophies and will be a good fit. They want to avoid parents who are high maintenance and difficult.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 17:35     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Yet another reason why we never considered private school.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 17:33     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
They want kids they can get into elite colleges. Legacies have a much better chance than unhooked kids. So they 1000% check the college degree pedigree of prospective parents. That's pretty much the only outright hook you can bring as a parent, outside of a large check.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 16:55     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
In interviewing for 9th last year we were not asked at all about community involvement or hobbies. Each school did ask us
1. what goals/hopes/plans we had for our child
2. why we thought x school fit into those
3. How we saw our child’s strengths and areas for improvement

I strongly suspect part of the goal was to gauge if we were realistic or potentially difficult to deal with
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 16:27     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
The question Admission Office would like answered is are these parents going to be problems for the administration or faculty if we admit their kid.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 15:40     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
The three schools we applied to last year (for elementary) asked about our level of community involvement. I'm a super involved parent and eyes lit up when my partner mentioned some of the initiatives I undertook at our previous schools. So definitely mention what you'd like to be involved in!
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 15:27     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
The younger the student, the more parents matter. But not things like their hobbies -- the school won't know that information.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 15:26     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:All other things being equal, do privates consider qualities of the parents in admissions decisions? Obviously I realize that wealthy families who appear to be future major donors would have an edge but I'm thinking about things like, do the parents have interesting hobbies? Did the parents attend similar schools? Are the parents pleasant to be around? Are the parents involved in their community? Do schools care about that stuff or is it really all about the kid and his/her chances of succeeding and thriving at the school?


As parents, we were never asked about our hobbies or interests or community involvement. There was a place on the applications to put where the parents graduated from college, but no one asked about it at interviews, and certainly never asked where/whether we attended any k-12 school (unless your kid is a legacy — there’s of course a spot to note that, as well; the school will know if a parent is an alum).
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 15:12     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
Anonymous wrote:All other things being equal, do privates consider qualities of the parents in admissions decisions? Obviously I realize that wealthy families who appear to be future major donors would have an edge but I'm thinking about things like, do the parents have interesting hobbies? Did the parents attend similar schools? Are the parents pleasant to be around? Are the parents involved in their community? Do schools care about that stuff or is it really all about the kid and his/her chances of succeeding and thriving at the school?



Yes.
Anonymous
Post 11/24/2025 15:10     Subject: Qualities of parents in admissions
All other things being equal, do privates consider qualities of the parents in admissions decisions? Obviously I realize that wealthy families who appear to be future major donors would have an edge but I'm thinking about things like, do the parents have interesting hobbies? Did the parents attend similar schools? Are the parents pleasant to be around? Are the parents involved in their community? Do schools care about that stuff or is it really all about the kid and his/her chances of succeeding and thriving at the school?