can this be true??

Parents Forum
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<p>I know one kid who got into Yale with less-than-stellar stats because he was an exceptional athlete that the school needed. He did fine. No honors, but fine, and he graduated on time.</p>

<p>I know another kid with decent but not stellar stats who is at Columbia, also with significant athletic talent, who is also doing fine.</p>

<p>IMHO, these schools may give you a boost in the admissions process due to one’s athletic prowess or legacy standing, but the schools are not going to admit someone whose stats aren’t in the ballpark and who can’t do the work. </p>

<p>Yes, OP, please do keep us posted and let us know what happens.</p>

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<p>*It would be interesting to know how the academically less qualified students who are admitted to Ivies or top LAC’s manage the academic demands once they are admitted to top schools. *</p>

<p>I don’t have the stats to support this, but that’s been the argument. Some of these kids would have top GPAs at schools that were lower ranked, but may end up struggling and/or have lower GPAs at elites.</p>

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<p>We know developmental Princeton legacies…and we’re talking big bucks…where the grandfather, dad (high profile public position) and one son were Princeton grads. The next sibling was outright rejected…and his stats were higher than his brother’s…who was a grad.</p>

<p>The Development offices don’t want to lose money but if someone has ALREADY donated millions to the college, that legacy is not going to take the money back. Yes, future donations would be in jeopardy…but these schools are not in the business of being bought.</p>

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<p>Four data points from many decades ago. I believe the patterns continue today, although I don’t think Person 4 would be admitted now:</p>

<p>Person 1 was a recruited football player from a non-privileged background who became a star at Yale and later played in the NFL. He was completely a smart, personable guy – not the world’s greatest intellect, not a future Fields Medal winner, but great study skills, time management, and networking ability, including unlimited access to really smart girlfriends. Made the most of every second he spent in college. If his football career had ended then, he had the investment banking job lined up. Not Phi Beta Kappa, but who the hell cared? Has, I believe, been very successful in his post-football life.</p>

<p>Person 2, also a recruited two-sport athlete from a non-privileged background, although he had been personally recruited by a very famous, powerful alumnus from his state, who continued to watch out for him. Failed two courses his first semester, needed to get 5 Bs the second semester in order to remain academically eligible to play. Our freshman counselors organized a systematic search for the five easiest courses at Yale College, and made certain he got into them, and that there was someone in each class making certain he was on top of things. His roommates were organized to support him as well (which included Person 3 below). It worked. In the process, he learned how to manage his time and stay within himself. He graduated on time, not much more. Went to a local law school in his hometown, and has had a pretty successful career in sports law/management.</p>

<p>Person 3 was one of Person 2’s roommates. A football recruit from a rural area in the Southwest. He had been an academic star in high school, but who knew what that meant, since he was the only person in his class to leave his home state for college. He was really raw – had never been anywhere, done anything but farm work, school work, and football. He turned out to be academically successful, socially successful, a real leader. He was later team captain, law review president at a top-10 law school, a Supreme Court clerk, and has had a great career. I suspect that no one in his hometown was the least surprised by that, but that as far as the admissions committee was concerned he was a complete shot in the dark (unlike, say, Person 1, who had the kind of outgoing style where you knew he was great in the first 60 seconds).</p>

<p>Person 4 was the grandson of a major industrialist and member of the Yale Corporation. I went to school with him for 10 years before he went off to a top boarding school, and he lived around the corner from me, so I know that he was far from dumb. (His older brother, namesake of Corporation Member – he WAS dumb. I don’t think anyone ever seriously considered sending him to Yale.) Anyway, he just struggled all the time in college – got Cs, felt stupid, beat himself up. He was miserable. There wasn’t any kind of support system for developmental admits like there was for athletes. He was one of only two or three people I knew who were really unhappy at Yale.</p>

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<p>In my 4 years at Cornell I met a lot of folks who got in troubel academically of whom almost all got in trouble because of lifestyle choices (drugs, drinking, or skipping). I probably knew less than 10 people who struggled academically who put in a solid effort (by struggle I mean C or lower aveage) … and of those 10 there was no colloration to athletics, legacies, and URMs. The athletes, legacies, and URMs were there but doing just about as well as everyone else academically … and in some cases doing better … for example, athletes GPAs overall were higher than the general population and in many sports (cross country, track, and swimming) much higher.</p>

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<p>My son’s friend at Princeton who is the development admit is doing well. He’s a smart kid - he didn’t have the super high stats of most Princeton admits, but he’s more than capable of doing the work there.</p>

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<p>Sure they are. They’ll take a calculated risk on accepting a legacy or development kid if the money is right. One of DD’s acquaintances has an acceptance to a top private school in our state with a strong academic reputation. If they have a 2.5 I’d be surprised. This person also got a place on one of the athletic teams, with stats significantly lower than the other teammates. The price tag? A $30 mil. donation- along with the previously endowed chairs and the promise of more to come… Strangely, I don’t find fault with it. Other kids, including my own, have hooks, why shouldn’t they??</p>

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<p>Maybe the philosophy of the ivies in regards to developmental admits is this…</p>

<p>We can accept a certain number of them without negatively affecting regular enrollment. If they can’t keep up the pace, they’ll be gone. But, either way, we’ve kept our donors happy.</p>

<p>I imagine that most/many developmental admits are full-payers, right? So, it’s no skin off the ivies’ noses to admit some every year. (I wonder how many each ivy does admit? 25? 50? 100?)</p>

<p>These developmental admits may not really be taking other kids’ spots. Afterall, the ivies took in displaced Katrina kids for a semester, and accommodated them with very little notice.</p>

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<p>I am aware of a family with five children. Both Mom and Dad went to a certain Ivy. The first four children went to the same Ivy. Child Five – uh uh. Not admitted. He wound up going to a very very good school that you’ve all heard of, so he wasn’t a terrible student, but he didn’t make it into the school that the rest of the family went to.</p>

<p>Ouch.</p>

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<p>I remember reading somewhere that George Steinbrenner was a legacy at Princeton and got rejected (decades ago)…ended up at Williams. JFK went to Princeton, and later transferred to Harvard. Don’t know if he went to Princeton only after being rejected by Harvard, though. He also went to Stanford and London School of Econ for a while.</p>

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<p>mom2: I think the number of true developmental admits per year for any particular college is almost certainly in single digits. Low single digits.</p>

<p>As for the Katrina kids – a close friend of my daughter’s was one of them, at Cornell. She spent the first semester at least living with two other girls in a curtained-off corner of a student lounge. The conditions were pretty miserable. I also remember that it was a big rush to get very few spaces – all the colleges kicked in, but none took a large absolute number of students, and it was effectively first-come, first-served.</p>

<p>Re JFK: My understanding is that he was always headed to Harvard (which at the time his family connections and record at Choate would have made a certainty). Like his older brother, he planned to do a year at LSE first (it’s fun to be an Ambassador’s kid), but left after a few weeks, returned to America, and spent a few weeks at Princeton before being hospitalized for some significant period of time. He started at Harvard as a freshman the following year, not a transfer. I don’t think he actually did anything at LSE or Princeton. He took a class or two at Stanford’s business school after graduation while he waited for his father to get him into the Navy despite his obvious physical unfitness for duty.</p>

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<p>Maybe if your last name is actually “Princeton” and you personally founded the college…</p>

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<p>Through friends who have worked in fundraising at two T20 schools (including someone who helped land the $100 mm Chicago gift a few years ago), I concur with JHS that the true number of developmental candidates ia just a handful. They are the sons and daughters of such privilege that you only need a handful of them.</p>