Questions and talking points for parent conversations: by Jeremy Tiers
“I’m not happy to admit this but I haven’t been good about talking with parents. Can you help me start the conversation?”
That’s the text of an email I received from a counselor last week and it got me wondering how many other counselors haven’t spoken yet with the parent(s) of their admitted students.
Let me suggest several questions and talking points that have worked well for our clients. In addition to establishing credibility, asking these kinds of questions will get parents to open up and allow you to determine just where your school stands at this point in the process:
- “What are you trying to get out of this whole college search process?”
- “What is it about our school that makes it a potential good fit for <child’s name>?”
- “What are you trying to get <child’s name> to focus on at this point?”
- “What do you see as the next step in this process?”
- “What’s your biggest fear as a parent as you help <child’s name> choose a college?”
- “What’s one big question that I could answer for you right now?”
- “Has your family talked about a timeline for a final decision?”