<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm an international applicant and Yale is now my top choice - provided I get into any American college them which I know it a crapshoot. What I was wondering about, though, was that on the Yale supplement, they ask you to specify parents/grandparents who went to Yale. Now I don't have any parents or grandparents who went there. They also have another box for any other relatives who went there. I do have one close relative (cousin) who is a recent alum, I put that down because um, why not, but do they actually care or give any bearing to family links like that? I'm not expecting anything, I was just curious.</p>
<p>I think that Yale cares more about family connections than many other schools.</p>
<p>Excuse me, I disagree! My nephew was valedectorian and had 2250 on SAT and hear this- the grandparents both went to Yale and both parents went to Yale and had donated money. He applied Early but still was denied. The parents appealed but still Yale did not care. My SIL was very very upset. So you think a relative being alum helps in admission? Go figure!</p>
<p>A parent doubles your chance but does not make you a shoo in. They have way more 4.0/2250 legacies than they can possibly take. Money matters, but it needs to be a lot of money. A cousin, unfortunately not.</p>
<p>That’s fine, I wasn’t planning on riding through because of a vague family connection, hopefully if I do end up getting in it will be because of my hard work. I was honestly just curious, I’m new to this whole American college thing, the system works very differently in my home country (everything is based on a specific standardized test score cut off, nothing else), I just wanted to know. Well, hopefully, I get in, if I don’t, I’m sure I’ll live.</p>