@ucbalumnus The kids of big donors and most of the kids of alumni are there to provide the cash flow that allow the colleges to provide tuition free access to anybody whose family has below the median income, and to provide reductions in tuition to a large number of the rest. It also allows these colleges to provide amenities that make them more attractive than similar selective colleges. Alumni preference also protects yield, which many selective colleges find to be an important issue.
At the end of the day, selective colleges care about their branding and reputation, and that’s what “building a class” is all about, that’s what the large endowment is all about, that’s what saving places for URMs is all about. Any kid who is trying to get into one of these schools is doing so because of the brand and character of the school, so by applying these kids are tacitly agreeing with the admission polices of the school. If somebody thinks that the admission policies of Harvard do not create the type of school which you would want to attend, why are they applying for Harvard?
@OhiBro Do you personally know any “total goof-offs” at a very selective colleges who have been “showered with money”? I’ve been in academia for a few decades, and have never met anybody who meets this description. The only kids who get to “goof off” in selective colleges are kids whose parents are showering the college with money, or kids who are smart enough to do well even though they goof off.
Do you think that kids simply send an application with their URM status on it, and that ensures them automatic acceptance with a scholarship? To get a scholarship, the recipient needs to “wow” the people who make the decisions regarding the selection of scholarship recipients. No “goof offs” have that capability. Moreover, any scholarship that even remotely resembles “showering with money” requires renewal every year, and will not be renewed unless the recipient demonstrates continued hard work and success. Goofing off for a semester is enough to get a warning, for a semester can result in loss of the scholarship, while goofing off for a year will result in any shower of money being cut off for good.
My kid has received one of the best scholarships out there, so I guess that you could say that she’s being “showered with money”. I can promise you that she meets or exceeds (by a good amount) the standards for admissions for her college, as do her fellow recipients. These are all driven, ambitious kids, and there is not a single goof-off among them.
Finally, a college which “meets need” is not providing a scholarship. It is financial aid which is given based on a kid’s financial status, not on their URM status.