<p>Does it? (if i subtly make it known somewhere on my application)</p>
<p>It could help tremendously if your dad is being recruited by that particular college… besides that, then no.</p>
<p>Ask your father. As a highly regarded professor, he should be well aware.</p>
<p>I’m guessing he’s not a professor at one of those top ivies? Because that would certainly help; otherwise, I’m not sure.</p>
<p>What can affect you is if you have the record to get accepted as a legacy at Dad’s alma mater and adcoms suspect that other school is your top choice.<br>
Or, if your Dad is a top prof at the school you are applying to.</p>
<p>Dropping names is risky- unless it reflects specific significant work you did for some bigshot.</p>
<p>if you can’t get an affirmative answer from your father that he has connections and they’re willing to help his kid – then no, it won’t help</p>
<p>Most famous academics are famous only to their fellow specialists. They can be brilliant people with sterling reputations in their field, but those reputations only carry so far. The people who do admissions at Ivy League schools and elsewhere are not faculty themselves and do not generally have PhDs, so they will not recognize a “highly regarded professor” from another university unless he does something in the public eye, i.e. appear frequently on TV, or write op-ed columns for the NYTimes, or something like that.</p>
<p>Many schools do give admissions preference to children of their own faculty (some even pay their tuition).</p>
<p>Hmm, this is interesting. My dad has a collegue who is in a very high position at one school I would like to apply. I don’t know if the person calling the dean of admissions on my behalf would have any effect on my chance for the school.</p>
<p>Them calling and saying that they like you and that you are a good person probably holds little weight. Them calling and saying that they think you are an amazing student, have great academic ability and that they would love to have you in their class as you would improve the academic experience for all involved would probably get you in.</p>
<p>The person is not a professor there-the person is a board member, but is probably the most famous alum to have ever come out of the school, which is a very good one.</p>