harvard admissions according to family status

Applying to College
1

<p>My results are honestly low, my SAT's have a pretty good chance of being great. I recently found out that my family donated a huge amount of money to Harvard and that one of the buildings/courses is under our family name. Does that help me? Or am I simply being delusional about the way college admissions function?</p>

2

<p>Sure, coming from a wealthy donor family can help a lot, especially if the family continues to give. The development offices research families connected to their schools to assess possibilities of large future gifts. The student, however, typically needs to bin the ballpark.</p>

3

<p>it’s a tip, but as 2college mentioned, you need to be in the ballpark of a non-tipped applicant. I don’t know what that would be at H… perhaps 1350 SAT and top 5% at a Public high school or top 50% at a prestigious boarding school.</p>

4

<p>Yup, I would say you’d need to be somewhere in the 25-75 percentile, preferrably at the median or above. So, SAT-wise, you’d need 2200-2230 and as for class ranking, you’d need to be in the top 10% at LEAST. If your family keeps donating to Harvard, the scales are going to be tipped in your direction and you’ll have a great hook. I mean, is Harvard just going to deny you if you’re in the ballpark and have donated a crapload of money to them?</p>

5

<p>I recently found out that my family donated a huge amount of money to Harvard and that one of the buildings/courses is under our family name.</p>

<p>???</p>

<p>You just found this out? </p>

<p>Who donated the money? parents? Grandparents? Great-grandparents (many years ago)? Other relatives?</p>

6

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<p>This is important. If the money came from your parents you may well get Developmental Admit status, which would indeed be a significant boost. But if it was some remote cousin or a long dead great uncle from the 19th century, any boost to you would have worn pretty thin by now.</p>

7

<p>OP says on the Harvard forum that it was cousins who have donated much. I told him that unless they are current givers and are willing to cash in one of their chits, it won’t make a difference. OP says he also has a “low GPA” — if so and he’s outside the normal realm of H students, even the family connection won’t help him.</p>