In this case, it seems like a million was enough for starters:
http://gawker.com/how-the-rich-get-into-ivies-behind-the-scenes-of-elite-1699066450
and a comment here reports hearsay that it’s $5-10 million for Harvard
http://www.dartblog.com/data/2016/02/012467.php
There are a lot of families owning conglomerates and big businesses both in the US and worldwide, what Warren Buffett has referred to as “The Lucky Sperm Club”. A lot of East Asian and Asian Pacific countries are controlled by these dynasty/titan families with very deep pockets. I have first hand knowledge of one family whose child was waitlisted at 2 Ivies. Dad and Mom flew half way around the world especially for arranged meetings with both schools. Child now attends one of those schools. Do you think most folks posting here would get that in person meeting at an Ivy as the parents of a waitlisted child? I will say that in this case the child was a strong student with stats in range and perfectly capable of doing the well as a matriculated student, but so aren’t all waitlisted students.
10 million should work even for Harvard or Stanford.
For someone to donate 10 million to get a spot, they likely have 100 million or more. There are not that many people. If you only have 10 million, you might as well donate to your kid instead of buying a piece of Harvard/Stanford diploma for them and have nothing left.
And if Harvard takes in 100 of those a year, that will only be 5% of the students. No one is going to notice 5%. Besides that will already net them 1 billion. I don’t think they get that much a year from people buying the spots.
Finally those are private schools. You hear people with sub standard performance, but with hooks getting in all the time. And development sure trumps legacies. To the schools, someone throwing millions at them is obviously more important than an average Joe who graduated from the school in the past. Just with the existence of the developement category which is common knowledge, it means spots are sold.
BTW, I thought many people want to go to those schools because they can meet the kids with connections. If no one is buying the spots and everyone enters on his/her own merit, where are the kids with connections? 
At the schools I’ve been affiliated with (east coast privates), there is no overlap between financial gifts to the College and admissions decisions. These schools all consider if a student/family is able to pay the full tuition – that certainly comes into play, but gifts are not in the conversation at all. Ironically, I can think of several cases where the kids of major donors were NOT admitted.
“Development admits” That is the term that schools use to refer to this. Some schools do go after this, some don’t. Some court it, others keep it on the down low. This article is a little dated, but explains how Duke used it successfully to raise their profile
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1047409881995483800
^ There was another article from a few years ago which spoke about how Duke admits the children of major donors and Brown admits the children of celebrities.
@alundari Not sure where you obtained those numbers, but I know for fact, that a low level 8 figure number, will get you legitimate play, say at an Ivy. Now, there are certainly other factors to consider and if the student is within the range of accepted students, but 100 million, would be a vast overstatement.
My classmate’s family donated an entire building/program to Stanford
Dang it. I’ve only got University of Phoenix money.
There is a price for every college. It could be 6 figures to 7, and it could be pledged over time. There are counselors who do know what it would take and help in brokering it. The price depends on the applicant’s stats and parents affiliation with the school. They ask for the pledge and their fees in escrow. I didn’t go that route, but I have seen an escrow agreement.
People always seem to “know for a fact”, but they can’t actually give an example, or prove the kid wasn’t qualified in some other way.
“I know for a fact…”’ in terms that I was in the room with the development official. Now, that does not mean the concerned student was not qualified, but rather this is what could be described as an assurance gesture.
The development official can help to put a student’s application in a special folder.
I don’t think there is any school that would say, “If you give us $X then your kid would be admitted.” One needs to be tactful and know how to present it without appealing as one is buying a seat.
A school like Cornell with 7 schools and different degree of difficulties probably could accommodate wider range of donors than a smaller school, like Dartmouth or other highly sought after schools like HYPS. One of D2’s friends is at one of the easiest schools at Cornell, with siblings at the same school, are all barely getting by. The only reason those kids are there is because their father is a big donor and a guest lecturer.
To be clear–it was a very artful conversation that steered away from the gauche narrative of quid pro quo, but it certainly navigated the student’s application into highly favorable waters.
Its probably the parent saying, if I donate X…
While I cannot prove it and it may be a rumor, I have heard through the prep school rumor mill that it can be said exactly like that at one of the HYPs. For the right price it does not matter how bright your kid is. Most likely the school GC and the development office coordinate so it is never the parent saying it.
Part of the strength of the particular prep school is how much have the parents donated to certain colleges recently (this is not for quip pro, just in general) so it works in subtle and obvious ways.