How much do large donations help in Yale admissions?

Leave the prices to the donor/friend, IMO. He offers assistance, you accept. How he goes about offering up that assistance is up to the donor/friend. If the donor has a facility named after him, 1) he’s likely donated much more than $1 million (my guess is OP threw out the $1+ million number and there is more behind the + sign) and 2) he knows the ins and outs of the process better than anyone here does. With that kind of wealth comes an understanding of the inner workings of such things. The development people at Yale will have a close working relationship with him - that’s the nature of their job, after all. Don’t take his offer of help as a guarantee by any means and don’t even high expectations, but I wouldn’t go in there with any intention of asking a lot of questions about the process. To me, that would be a bit gauche.

Hi OP, maybe you could use this as the subject of your common app essay? How I demonstrated brains, grit, initiative, and real-world awareness by leveraging somebody else’s money into an edge in ivy admissions? Adcoms probably don’t get that essay too often.

Of course other things get considered in the real world, including legacy and donor status. Here the OP is neither, but has asked about whether a connected alum/donor can enhance the OP’s chances. My point, similar to @gibby, was there is a chance it might backfire, depending on how the family friend approaches the AO and Development and what is exactly communicated. A letter that ties outstanding attributes of the OP to specifics that the recommender has personal knowledge of might carry more weight than a similar letter of a non-connected writer, a general letter extolling the virtues of the candidate is unlikely to make a difference and, “In fact, it may dilute the effect of the two required recommendations.” https://admissions.yale.edu/advice-putting-together-your-application. And, based on my personal knowledge of the people within the AO and Development, IMO any suggestion or hint of “pay to play” or “favor owed” will not be well received, so getting a family friend to try to help push through an application is not without risks.

Wow, @LadyMeowMeow, that was jealousy writ large.

I’d be shocked if 90% of all applicants everywhere aren’t leveraging whatever resources they have to get into whatever their target school, job, or audition for that matter. This entire forum is about: how does a person figure out their target goal and how does a person achieve that target goal with all of the resources they can. Ethical judgements are up to the the individual.

OP: I say do your best to be the best candidate you can, as it suits your sense of ethics. If you decide to go through with this and if you should gain access to Yale this way, then maybe pass your gifts throughout your career to those who need them. Open the door wide for those coming behind you, not just at Yale but everywhere.

I was only trying to help, @Dustyfeathers. OP is free to ignore my suggestion. Besides, the essay is already partly written. OP argues that if it’s the money that pushes them over the top then it’s not the money that got them in. Lots of interesting thinking to work with there. A lot more interesting than “how I started an investment club.”

"If I received admission at Yale with this, I would feel no different than without. That’s because I feel I am a relatively qualified applicant already, and have worked very hard all throughout high school. Thus, if I did in fact get in I would feel that these contributions only helped me, but was not what truly “got me in”. I would know that it only helped push my application over the top. I would still feel proud of myself for my achievement,

These universities are trying to assemble what they see as the optimal collection of individuals they can obtain for their classes, and beyond a baseline level of brainpower (i.e., they’re confident you can do the work), there are many reasons they might take you, depending on what they’re looking for and what they think is best for the institution in that year. They might consider that the sum of your attributes is consistent with what they want, and that the endorsement of the donor friend helps tip it over. Or they might take the view that, given who else is applying from your school that year, and what they have to offer, that this donor isn’t important enough in the scheme of things to make a difference in this circumstance. Or they might get annoyed if pressure is applied in a heavy-handed way. Or anything else.

A flaw in your thinking, OP, imo, is that you believe you’ve earned admission on your own because you think you’ve checked a bunch of boxes and you’re “already a pretty qualified applicant”. It doesn’t work that way. You have no idea if what you have is a match for what Yale wants, because they turn down many more people with your stats or the equivalent than they accept. All you know is that your stats - thus far (I’m assuming you aren’t a senior yet) - look like they’re in range, so now the rest of the package comes into play. You haven’t written your application, and your recommendations haven’t been written yet either. You haven’t done much of what needs to be done to convince Yale to give one of 2,000 spots to you. And you’ll never know who else is applying, and why or whether Yale might conclude that they want any of them more or less than you.

There is no magic formula, unless your name is Malia Obama (and she wouldn’t have got in to Harvard and wherever else she applied if they thought she wouldn’t be a fit or didn’t think she could do the work, I’m confident) or you’re one of some very small number of other special cases. You’ll never know what would have happened if this donor hadn’t been involved, or if you’d gone to a different school, or you’d been a different race, or come from a different state, or you didn’t come from the kind of family that is friendly with generous Yale alumni, or you had different ECs, or different kids were applying that year, or someone on the committee had different priorities the day your file was being discussed. Just put forth the best application you can, showing as clearly as you can why the institution should want you, and use the advantages you earned through effort and the other ones you were born with in the way you deem to be ethically and otherwise appropriate.

That said, with regard to your original question, I believe that your alumnus friend should speak to the person or persons from the development office who are no doubt in regular contact with him/her, explain the situation (including details of your friend’s relationship with you) and ask for guidance on how best to proceed in the circumstances. It will not be the first time they’ve been asked this kind of question, I’m sure.

It’s not all about stats. That’s such a narrow view and dooms plenty of kids. Nor do I think OP knows yet what “good ECs” are, to an Ivy committee. It’s more than pres of some club and a venture or two.

Your family friend would write about character, knowing you since you were a wee lad. But adcoms can be more swayed by what adult educators say, based on their first hand view of your work, record, and other attributes, over time.

When a major donor (there’s a LOT of leg room between “$1m+” and, say, $20m) has a child apply and expects some “swing,” there’s more that goes on than a chat with the donor rep. And that’s for, as said, a child, not some more distant relative or a neighbor.

The big issue here, imo, is that OP hasn’t really got an idea of what Yale looks for, after stats and a couple of ECs. It is possible to get that better read. If OP had done some vetting, put that energy in, been that sort of inquisitive, he’d know it’s much more than investment club and 2 businesses. And early good stats. So, he has “miles to go.”

To answer the OP’s actual question: it’s impossible to say how much your application might be helped by the intervention of this family friend. It’s my opinion, though, that it is unlikely to hurt. It might help a little, a lot, or not at all. My advice, similar to some others, would be to graciously accept any help that he offers you, but not to assume that this means you’ll be admitted. Have a plan that includes other colleges as well.

Just as an aside, one of the benefits of going to Yale that is constantly cited are the many connections you will make with other students there, that may help you in your future career. Given that, it’s ironic that so many people are annoyed at the suggestion that somebody should use a connection to get in.