Hi green678, I’m truly curious - what do you mean by ‘peer school’? Are you actually talking about Stanford, or another school of the same caliber, like Harvard’s system, etc? I have heard of Stanford medical faculty kids both getting in, as well as getting rejected, so I agree, it’s not that helpful, but every little bit has got to help, I would think.
OP, I’m sure your trying to do the best for all involved - but what if your kid doesn’t want to go to Stanford? Just make sure not to push him/her towards that simply because “Dad can get you in.”
From the two cases I know personally (which makes this anecdotal) the answer to the title thread question is a resounding YES. But your kids have to be in the ballpark in every way with other candidates. This is not a ticket, but a weighted preference with equally qualified applicants.
It depends upon how important the faculty member is. Or how well you know the Director of Admissions. It’s not a big bump up at all and with a 5% accept rate that little bump isn’t going to do much. I suggest you ask how many faculty kids are students there.
I have a friend who is a faculty member for a school far less selective than Stanford. Not even in the same stratosphere of selectivity, and she is also held in high esteem at the university. Her position got her the privilege of a personal phone call, before the official notification was made, telling her that her child was going to be denied, and the girl was within the ball park to get accepted. In fact, even without the connection, I’d have thought she would be accepted. Still shocked she was not .
Good idea about faculty connections. It doesn’t always work. My DH and I were both on Georgetown faculty and our DD preferred to go elsewhere, even with tuition benefits. That was a difficult conversation once she was admitted and turned it down. Some 17 year olds are not very practical. She did not buy the idea of frequent lunches with parent(s).
Read the comment by cardevitoraphicticia on this reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1syhp1/people_working_in_college_admissions_what_are_the/
Basically the poster insinuates that faculty kids at Stanford are put on a special list.
Sorry the link seems to be blocked. Here is what the quote says on the Reddit page (from user cardevitoraphicticia):
@heartburner OP not sure if anyone mentioned this, but Stanford offers faculty on-campus housing which is said to be much cheaper than the outside homes, if that’s something you’re interested in. The housing prices in Palo Alto are absolutely ridiculous.