Admissions Benefits for Children of Columbia Employees

Hello - Does anyone know if children of CU faculty/staff have any additional ‘pull’ when applying?

See below for the Tuition benefit program:
http://hr.columbia.edu/find-out-about/benefits/benefits-officers/tuition-programs/tuition-exemption-benefits-officers

Basically kids of full time faculty or staff get 100% tuition covered when attending Barnard, Columbia College, General Studies and Fu Engineering. If the student doesn’t attend Columbia, then he/she would get 50% scholarship for 4 years at any accredited college.

Does this mean that kids who apply with faculty parents have an easier time getting in? Or are they treated the same as everyone else who applies? I know some schools during admissions deliberations have special committees that review children of faculty applications (Duke, Emory, Princeton). Is the same true at Columbia? Is there a difference between a kid whose parent is a full professor vs a non-teaching staff?

Children of faculty get preferential treatment (e.g. the term “fac-brats”) in admission and fees. How it treats kids of other employees is unknown. If this applies to you, have your parent speak w/the HR dept.

If you’re simply asking out of curiosity’s sake, then you should know that this is completely standard.

Hello: my wife is a non-teaching staff at CU. The HR policy delineates between Officers of Research, Officers of Instruction, Non professorial officers, Officers of Administration/Libraries, Postdoctoral Researchers and Officers of CU Press. My wife would fall under the Officers of Administration category. Her boss is a member of the Executive Committee and reports directly to the President of CU.

My kids are still several (4-7) years away from applying to college, but given the high competition, I thought we might be better off having her leave CU and getting a higher salary in the private sector. If it turns out the rate of acceptance for Officers kids is the same as the general population (6%) then our kids are probably better off taking their chances elsewhere.

Paying for college won’t be an issue as we have stocked away enough money in both kids 529 plans to full fund any college they want. Getting a 100% tuition exemption from Columbia, is enticing, but the 6% admission rate is making me second think this. I am active alumni member at Duke. Duke’s admission rate is 11% and slightly higher for ED and legacy (around 20%). Would hate to see the kids apply to CU and get rejected thereby losing out the opportunity for ED/legacy boost at Duke.

My wife likes her job and is happy there. However being in academics, she gets paid substantially less than what she would get in the private sector (my guess is at least 25-40% lower). My wife had conversations with people in her office and HR, but they give a standard answer (admissions is tough, don’t know what admissions looks for). I recently heard that Columbia’s acceptance rate for incoming freshman has been gradually decreasing over the years, and has dropped to an ultra-low 6% this past season.

So I guess what I’m looking for is some inside knowledge on what happens at undergrad admissions. If an applicant is otherwise qualified, does being an Officer’s kid confer any additional advantage to admissions?