<p>Do the boarding schools such as PA, SPS, Deerfield, Exeter, etc not consider your family background at all?
For example, if your family is politically involved or very rich, would you have significant advantage?</p>
<p>P.S.: I'm don't belong to those kinds of families.</p>
<p>If you have enough of anything they notice.(well almost anything)
I doubt that Andover didn’t look at Bush’s family when they accepted him. All of the Fords and Mars kids at Hotchkiss are instant ins. </p>
<p>They look into it… That is why they do a parent interview. They look for a stable family with good values. ON THE FLIP SIDE: They may see a decent kid facing horrible challenges in an undesirable circumstance.</p>
<p>Hmmm.
I mean, if your family will give the school an entirely new faculty if you get accepted, of course it’s going to have a huge affect. I mean, if Obama’s kids applied to Exeter, Andover, and SPS, do you think that they’re going to get rejected?</p>
<p>On the flip side, if you come from a not-so-good family background, you might have a few advantages as well. The schools will see that despite your family background, you’re still highly motivated and smart.</p>
<p>Sure it does.</p>
<p>When I was to Hotchkiss my tour guide was like “Mr. Mars donated this. Mr. Mars gave us that. Mr. Mars made that athletic center for us. Mr. Mars… Mr. Mars… Mr. Mars…”</p>
<p>My tour guide told me that about 10 of his grandchildren currently attend. She was like "Mr. Mars has three grandchildren in my grade, two in my brothers grade, two are seniors…</p>
<p>Of course…</p>
<p>I remember in one of my interviews we were with another family who had amazing connections. I imagine he’s very wealthy, (the father) dressed very smartly and carried that air of (non-arrogant, if that is possible) elitism where you know they came from a good background. His cousins went to Harvard or Princeton, his brother to Yale, blahblahblah, his closest friend worked at Duke or something (which was where one of the admission officers worked at before going to the school, so they had a very vibrant conversation while I stood there silently) They were VERY enthusiastic to have his daughter apply to their school, I can tell you that.</p>
<p>It does matter. Not even the most well-regarded family names. Just anyone who has relatively good connections with the school or mutual friends.</p>
<p>And with Hotchkiss, I think that was more of a legacy thing. After all, the founder of Mars did graduate from Hotchkiss (though maybe if they were less successful not all of their children would get accepted)</p>
<p>wow, must’ve been scary for you, westcoast!
if that had happened to me, I would’ve sank through the ground…</p>
<p>Sorry to sound cliche-ish, “The apple never falls too far from the tree”.</p>
<p>Westcoast, I personally don’t like name dropping, and I have names that I could drop. Some people find this boorish. I realize the who you know game is a common one in meeting new people, but I doubt that dropping names is so impressive. Now on the other hand, major $$$ is a different story. All schools need to raise funds.</p>
<p>I think that the development office keeps an eye on the applicant pool too. When a parent puts down hedge fund manager or director of mergers & acquisitions, etc. as occupation, a little extra research on that person may be done to determine the level of wealth. The school naturally wants their annual fund giving, which includes contributions from parents of current students, to be strong. They also may be anticipating major gifts if the family is pleased with their child’s experience.</p>
<p>I just personally find that whole system very ugly. What you’ve done should be more important than who you know.</p>
<p>Ugly or not, just wait until you get a real job! It’s what you’ve done AND who you know. Sometimes the later is more important in a career. A good Rolodex is a major asset and always will be. It can get you jobs and aid in your success
Life is not fair.</p>
<p>Obviously.</p>
<p>However, “life isn’t fair” doesn’t justify a flawed system.</p>
<p>Obviously “Flawed” is a bit too subjective.</p>