<p>I have some family friends that are very good friends with a former Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania.
Also, One of my fathers very good friends use to be the General Manager of the Sports Facilities for the University.
Based upon this, do you think that their help, will help me with admissions especially since my grades were not A's more in the B range. And still have not taken SAT's (Junior)
Thanks!</p>
<p>Don’t count on it without the grades</p>
<p>That and a a couple of dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.</p>
<p>If you have ‘good enough’ grades that can help, assuming your connections can still push a few buttons within the admissions office. If the admissions committee looks at your grades and says, “there’s no way he’d be able to keep up if he goes here” then you probably don’t have much of a chance.</p>
<p>I am somewhat in the same boat as the OP… family friends with a friend of the dean of admissions, numerous family members have went to Wharton and a couple other connections. Although my grades are not stellar (3.5 UW Freshman and Sophomore, 3.8 UW as a Junior) i have demonstrated an obvious passion for Finance, I am a paid contributor to one of the largest finance websites on the internet, president of school FBLA, previous entrepreneurial experience, and am confident that my knowledge of finance and derivatives would be impressive in an interview. Our family friend said he could get me an interviews, but would a stellar interview be enough to make up for sub par grades and an average Wharton SAT score (2200)?</p>
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<p>I bet you could sneeze and get in. I wouldn’t be too worried.</p>
<p>drfree124
See I don’t think that is true, because imagine how many people know the dean of admissions… probably 1000’s and those 1000’s now 100’s of people, you could probably fill a class 10 times over with people who have “connections”.</p>
<p>I’d have to agree with ivygolfer.</p>
<p>Sometimes family friends means the parents see each other once a month at a country club, other times it means that they are very close and ‘hang out’ (for lack of a better term) often. I don’t think we can really generalize about everyone the dean of admissions knows, which I shouldn’t have done a few posts above.</p>
<p>Each application is read by many people within the admission office. Your application could be read by one who is not impressed by your application or who does not know the “friend” and put on the reject pile. The admissions dean may not even see your application.</p>
<p>No, friendships won’t matter at all. Only a family tie to administration or faculty would help.</p>
<p>If only a true meritocracy existed.</p>