I’ve heard different things on this forum, but how big of a hook is it if one parent is an employee?
Employee of the school? Ask your parent.
Depends on the school. At some schools it doesn’t make a difference at all, others it may give a slight bump.
It depends upon the school and the parent. If s/he’s cozy with the Admissions dept or the admissions officer has to look that parent in the face often, it can make a difference as it would if the parent were a big wig.
My friend who worked at a university go the special privilege of being told of her DD"s denial of admissions before it was released.
Some schools may offer employee tuition discounts, although that may not necessarily come with any admission advantage.
If the parent is an employee of yours, it could be quite a big hook!
Every school is different. If it is considered, the parent/employee’s status at the school is likely to be considered as well. Length of employment, how much the school values the parent’s future work, is likely to make a difference. If the parent is a department chairperson, it is likely to be a bigger factor than if the parent is a part-time bookkeeper in the bursars office. Anecdotal advice I’ve heard at dinner parties suggests that it may be a small factor at the university where my husband works.
My guess–and it’s only a guess–is that it has some advantage at smaller colleges, and it would depend on how high up and well known the employee is at the school. I think the child of the Associate Dean of students, usually a non-academic position, is going to get some advantage while the child of a database manager for library services is going to have less pull. But don’t discount the actual personal “in” that some employees have with the admissions committee members. At many small colleges, everyone knows the security guard on campus or they talk to the cleaning staff every day. That employee may have some personal relationship with someone in admissions that is undoubtedly a stronger edge than even an official policy of preference for college employees, “Dear Suzy, I just wanted to let you know that Billy’s application went in today. Hope you can give it a good reading!” And their kids all went to school together and they shop at the same grocery stores. But at large universities, it’s not going to be much of an advantage at all. The administration has literally thousands of employees spread out across larger metro areas, and when they can’t even satisfy all of the desires of their faculty’s children in the class–which is definitely a hook–you can imagine where the non-academic employees fall on the preferences list.