<p>I'm finished with college, but I enjoy reading books about higher ed and especially admissions, so this post is not asking for personal advice.</p>
<p>I recently read "Crazy U" by Andrew Ferguson, and he referenced the term "development case" to describe "those wealthy kids whose parents, though not alumni, show signs of incipient generosity" (p. 185). Okay, that part I understand. The school is fairly certain that the parents will give them a significant amount of money as a charitable donation, and so (barring completely disqualifying stats) they decide to admit the kid. Ethically questionable, yes, but I understand from a practical standpoint why they do it.</p>
<p>What I don't get is how exactly this type of situation actually comes to be.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How does the school know that the parents are willing to donate extra money, especially if the parents aren't alumni and therefore have no previous track record of donating to the school?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the development issue communicated? Do the parents somehow let the school know that more money awaits beyond tuition costs, or does the school inquire into the parents' willingness to give? Do parents somehow position themselves as potential donors?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there an income level cutoff for this type of deal? How do the schools even know what the parents' net worth is if they're not applying for financial aid, and are thereby not disclosing financial info other than their ability to pay the sticker price in full? </p></li>
<li><p>Do "development case" students generally know that they are "development cases" in the same way that an athletic recruit is aware that they are an athletic recruit, or are they left to think that they got in solely on their own academic and personal merit? Is this term actually articulated by either party, or is it taboo to "go there?"</p></li>
<li><p>What happens if the college admits the "development case" student and the parents decide not to donate? Is there some sort of contract in place obligating the parents to contribute a certain amount upon admission of their child?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This aspect of admissions is very foreign to me. I'm very curious as to how this transaction of sorts takes place. If anyone could give me some clarification on this issue, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!</p>
<p>If you have to ask if your donation is enough to make your kid or grand kid a developmental admit, you’re probably not in the ball park. The schools are not so gauche as to report specific number limits but I’ll assume we’re talking about $5+ million dollars when a mere professorship exceeds $2 million dollars. The admissions offices don’t call over to the alumni office to find out the prior generosity of your parents - they know of gifts large enough to be notable. The development office has staff that scour news sources to assess who might be in a position to be especially generous and likely call over to admissions to remind them that a particularly generous donor has a kid in the applicant pool.</p>
<p>FWIW, albeit at a lower donation level, the majority of Sterling donors to Yale in the $10K-$15K per year range have their kids rejected for admissions. You can imagine that this group had more opportunities to do interesting ECs at highly rated schools, had educated parents in homes filled with books, and had more realistic expectations of the competition before applying if their parents were interviewers. The number of kids who get some developmental advantage each year has to be vanishingly small.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, frank development admits are few. Many are development/alumni or development/celebrity. I live in an area where the are a lot of very high income people and their kids are routinely turned down from the top schools, and I am talking about admissable kids that no one would blink an eye if accepted and cry out foul. There are also development admits that have ties to the school and someone well placed in the school get the word in that this is a special applicant due to donation potentials. There are no hard and fast rules for this.</p>
<p>My kids went to an independent school where the selectivity and factors were similar in many ways to selective college admissions. Again, I’ve known a lot of potential deveiopoment families turned down with kids that were good candidates. Usually, it’s development plus another factor involved, at least knowing someone well placed at the school. I can guarantee you that in that school’s situation, just having a billionaire parent is not going to get the kid in school. I’ve seen them turned down.</p>
<p>Ah, the news. That makes sense. But with the staggering number of applications, they’d need to hire full-time Googlers to figure out who’s who. Makes me wonder if any important ones get missed and don’t get courted, especially “new money.” </p>
<p>Ferguson’s book stated that a fair percentage of Ivy admits are development cases and didn’t mention that practice being on the decline.</p>
<p>Like I said, this post is not asking for personal advice - the development prospects at our house are exceedingly dim. :)</p>
<p>Thanks, Cpt. Personal connections make more sense than relying solely on news reports, but what an awkward conversation that must be! The billionaire story is a bit of a relief, as well.</p>