????卡洛琳?迪亞爾特?愛德華茲2005年至2012年間曾任歐洲工商管理學(xué)院（INSEAD）MBA招生主任，現(xiàn)在是Fortuna Admissions公司的招生顧問。她表示：“考慮到歐洲工商管理學(xué)院學(xué)生的年齡相對較大（平均年齡29歲），我們這些行政管理人員覺得這一趨勢頗為有趣，但同時(shí)也擔(dān)心這些年輕的專業(yè)人士到底獨(dú)立性如何?！?/p>

????還有就是這類父母常常會(huì)問出讓人十分尷尬的問題。愛德華茲稱：“作為招生輔導(dǎo)員，還有些父母會(huì)來問我們‘如果我給學(xué)校捐幾百萬美元，我的孩子會(huì)被錄取嗎？’?！彼f，回答當(dāng)然是不可以。

????不過通常來說，商學(xué)院招考官不太會(huì)注意到父母插手申請過程，因?yàn)樯暾埲送鶗?huì)羞于坦承這一點(diǎn)。但是有時(shí)候這個(gè)問題會(huì)不知不覺突然冒出來。曾在密歇根大學(xué)羅斯商學(xué)院長期做招生工作的喬恩?富勒曾經(jīng)就接到過一個(gè)已被錄取學(xué)生的母親的電話。

????富勒稱：“這個(gè)電話可真夠怪的。她說‘您可能不知道，他發(fā)給您的所有信息我都偷偷復(fù)制了。他所有的申請短文我都讀過，他和學(xué)校所有的溝通我都了解。我希望你知道這一點(diǎn)，不過永遠(yuǎn)別跟他說我給你來過電話?！@個(gè)電話是要對錄取她兒子表示感謝的，但了解到原來他的所有材料都經(jīng)過他母親首肯實(shí)在有點(diǎn)讓人不安?！?/p>

????富勒稱，去年有一個(gè)已被密歇根大學(xué)錄取的學(xué)生問她是否能讓媽媽和她一起參加錄取學(xué)生周末聚會(huì)?，F(xiàn)在已是Clear Admit公司MBA招生顧問的富勒回憶道：“她是個(gè)國際生，她和家里人對她全靠自己做決定不放心。最后她媽媽確實(shí)來了，我們像招待其他客人一樣招待了她?！?/p>

????富勒相信，這種情況遠(yuǎn)比很多人意識(shí)到的要多。他說：“絕大多數(shù)時(shí)候，申請人還是很清楚這種情況不能讓學(xué)校知道?！碑吘梗粚傇陬^上盤旋、過分插手孩子事務(wù)的父母會(huì)讓人擔(dān)心申請人是否有能力獨(dú)立完成MBA課程并勝任畢業(yè)后要求嚴(yán)格的工作。

????不過直升機(jī)父母業(yè)已成為必須直面的一種現(xiàn)實(shí)了。富勒表示：“這是一種免不了的問題，因?yàn)閷W(xué)校明白，這些父母不光是提提建議而已，買單還得靠他們。他們會(huì)為應(yīng)試和輔導(dǎo)買單，所以他們的意見在此過程中有很大影響。學(xué)校必須設(shè)法與之合作，而不是加以抵制。”

????當(dāng)父母給招生官打電話時(shí)，他們的子女往往還有好幾年才會(huì)提出申請——這跟那些積極主動(dòng)的申請人很不一樣。達(dá)特茅斯學(xué)院塔克商學(xué)院的招生主任多納?克拉克稱，有時(shí)候她會(huì)接到那些子女還在上大學(xué)的父母的電話?！八麄兿肓私猓瑧?yīng)該跟子女說什么才能讓他們以后被塔克錄取的機(jī)會(huì)更大?！?/p>

????沃頓商學(xué)院也是這種情況?，F(xiàn)任Fortuna公司招生顧問，曾在沃頓招生辦公室工作的朱迪斯?希爾弗曼?奧達(dá)拉當(dāng)年經(jīng)常會(huì)接到那些父母的電話，他們要幫孩子決定畢業(yè)后到底上哪個(gè)商學(xué)院。她說：“他們很擔(dān)心擇校以后會(huì)如何影響孩子最終的MBA課程計(jì)劃。要知道這些孩子最大也不過才18歲，到讀MBA還有六到八年。”“可能更讓人擔(dān)心的是，那些孩子還在上中學(xué)的家長打電話問，如果這些孩子最后想上沃頓的話，現(xiàn)在應(yīng)該參加哪些活動(dòng)。這也就是提前12年到15年就開始為讀MBA做規(guī)劃了，”她笑稱。

????對招生輔導(dǎo)人員來說，父母的這種插手到底有多大影響呢？奧達(dá)拉說：“申請剛開始時(shí)，我一般很樂意和父母聊聊。但我不認(rèn)為他們需要自己動(dòng)手改申請短文或給面試建議……如果申請時(shí)每個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)都這么幫孩子，那這個(gè)學(xué)生以后獨(dú)立探索自己學(xué)術(shù)道路或職業(yè)生涯時(shí)該怎么辦呢？”

????當(dāng)兒子被一個(gè)商學(xué)院拒收后，母親往往會(huì)很不高興，非要自己插一手。不過愛德華茲還在歐洲工商管理學(xué)院MBA招生處任主任時(shí)，有一次收到一位母親的來信卻對學(xué)校拒收她兒子表示感謝，因?yàn)榉駝t他就會(huì)“推遲要孩子了”。另外，這位母親寫道，“考慮到他的天資聰慧和我家的政治關(guān)系，他也不需要讀個(gè)MBA。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

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????Caroline Diarte Edwards, MBA admissions director at INSEAD from 2005 to 2012 and now an admissions consultant for Fortuna Admissions, says, "Given the slightly older age group at INSEAD [average age is 29], we in the administration observed this evolution with amusement, as well as concern about how independent these young professionals really are."

????Then, there are the rather awkward questions that parents ask. "As admissions coaches," adds Edwards, "we have also been approached by parents who have asked, 'If I donate $x million to the school, will my child be admitted?' The answer, she says, is forget it.

????More often than not, however, parental involvement is less noticeable to business school admission officials because applicants are often embarrassed to fess up to it. But sometimes, the issue does crop up in subtle ways. Jon Fuller, who had been on the admissions staff at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, recalls a phone call from the mother of an accepted student.

????"It was really weird," says Fuller. "She said, 'You didn't know it, but I was blind copied on every message he sent to you. I read all his essays and talked about all the interactions he had with the school. I want you to know but don't ever tell him I called you.' She was calling to say thanks for admitting her son, but it was a little disconcerting to know that he had his mom approving all this stuff."

????Last year, Fuller notes, one of Michigan's accepted applicants asked if she could bring her mother with her to the admitted students weekend. "She was an international student and she and her family were not comfortable with her making the decision on her own," remembers Fuller, now an MBA admissions consultant for Clear Admit. "Her mom came and we treated her as a guest like anyone else."

????Fuller believes it happens more often than many realize. "For the most part, the candidates are still savvy enough to understand that the schools shouldn't know, he says. After all, a hovering, over-involved parent may raise a red flag about an applicant's ability to make it through an MBA program on his own and to thrive in a demanding post-MBA job.

????Still, helicopter parents have become a fact of life. "It's a necessary evil because the schools realize that the parents are not only acting as advisors," says Fuller. "They are paying the bills. They are paying for test prep and tuition, so their opinions are going to hold a lot of sway in the process. Schools have to figure out how to work with it instead of against it."

????When parents call admission officials at schools, their children tend to be some years from applying -- rather than active applicants. Dawna Clark, director of admissions at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, says she sometimes fields calls from parents whose children are still undergrads. "They want to know what they should tell their children to increase the odds of an acceptance at Tuck later on," says Clarke.

????That is also the case at Wharton. When Judith Silverman Hodara, now an admissions consultant at Fortuna, worked in Wharton's admissions office, she would frequently get calls from parents of kids who were making the decision about what school to attend for undergrad. "They would be very concerned about how that choice of school would affect their eventual MBA plans," says Hodara. "Keep in mind that these kids were 18 years old at most, and the MBA would not be for another six to eight years.

????"Perhaps more concerning were calls from parents of middle school [children] to see what activities the kids should be involved with if they eventually wanted to go to Wharton," laughs Hodara. "So this was planning out about 12 to 15 years in advance, at least."

????How intrusive is parental meddling to a hired admissions coach? "I am always glad to chat with parents at the start of the process," adds Hodara, "but I do not believe that they need to be editing the essays or giving coaching tips for the interview.... With this much support at every step of the way, how is the student really going to navigate their own academic and professional careers when they need to?"

????One mother was apparently so offended at her son's rejection from a business school that she felt compelled to weigh in. When Edwards was director of MBA admissions at INSEAD, she received an email from the mother who actually thanked the school for the rejection because otherwise her son would have "unnecessarily postponed having children." Besides, the mother added, "given the talent and political connections of the family, he doesn't need an MBA anyway.