<p>“Oh, I think if I waltzed into the Development Office at, let’s say, Carleton, mentioned my son’s deep interest in the History Department and asked if they had any needs in the $50,000 range [notice four zeros there] they’d get the message.”</p>
<p>$50,000? I don’t think so. That’s nothing to a college of that level. $500,000 - MAYBE, if it came with assurance that there would be regular, ongoing contributions at that level over a period of X years. If you’re talking a one-time contribution only, I think you’re easily talking about the level having to be $2 million or more. Cardinal Fang, with all due respect, I think you’re naive to think that $500,000 would be a golden ticket even to HYPS. Plenty of upper middle class families - heck, rich families - would be offering that.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Joan Rivers and Columbia but her daughter went to Penn.</p>
<p>Ok . . . back to the topic at hand. Give it up! Chances are the admissions office has the correct test scores, transcripts, letters, resumes, DVDs, CDs, and anything else you threw at them. There is NO guarantee any kid is going to get into a given college. </p>
<p>Use this as an opportunity to teach your child how to move on when faced with rejection/disappointment. It’s a very valuable life lesson.</p>
<p>And on the matter of “we” - it was not your (plural) application. It was your child’s. Just last week I had a parent in my office and he said something about being so tired from writing his daughter’s essays. I think I audibly gasped. (I often wonder if these parents intend on moving into the dorms with their kids, going to class, writing their papers, taking their exams . . . wait! I (unfortunately) know the answer to that (if we allowed them to do so.)</p>
<p>I didn’t say HYPS; I said Carleton. Further, let’s assume that the student with the bribing parents is roughly qualified for Carleton, or at least not grossly underqualified.</p>
<p>Carleton is a small school. They claim their endowment is down 20% (but it’s probably down more now) to under $500 million, and donations are off 20% as well. In January, Carleton announced budget cuts of $1.5 million; they admit that if the economy doesn’t recover this year (and it won’t) more cuts will come. $50,000 is a significant chunk of change for a small liberal arts college. I think they’d jump on it, especially if they thought there might be more to come.</p>
<p>This is a good year for smart rich kids precisely because colleges need their money.</p>
<p>S is still in HS but S went through rejection trying to get into private HS. He was rejected to his 1st choice and waitlisted at his 2nd choice school. Could have continued onto to HS at his private middle school, but choose instead to attend school #3. Best decision we ever made. S loves it, we love it. And the best part of all is they gave S merit aid and the school is costing us 1/5 to 1/3 what the other schools would have. </p>
<p>Moral of the story, don’t fret, there is a school out there that your child will love. Find that school and don’t look back!</p>
<p>Maybe the parent didn’t actually write the essays…maybe the work was in nagging the kid, proofing, nagging the kid to make the changes, uploading the essay onto the online app…I know that it took a while for “us” to figure out how to upload Son’s essay - he tried and failed so I tried and initally failed…the problem had something to do with our pop-up blocker. If you had talked to me the next morning, I might have said that ***I ***was working on essays late into the night.</p>
<p>beginning to think the OP was scared away; 1st post ever was the thread starter; haven’t heard from them for 50 posts…why would someone start a thread and not respond?</p>
<p>“…maybe the work was in nagging the kid, proofing, nagging the kid to make the changes, uploading the essay onto the online app…”</p>
<p>My experience is that if a kid really is interested in going to a particular college, they won’t need to be nagged to do those things. My kid whom I nagged to get apps in ended up flunking out of college even though he liked the college (i.e. the ECs, sports teams, and parties). My kid whom I didn’t nag, managed not to apply to college during his senior year of high school, but did get apps in during a gap year in which he was an Americorps volunteer. He is flourishing in college.</p>