<p>Would a parent knowing a major donor at a school have any impact, positive or negative, on possible financial aid for the student? </p>
<p>My son was going to mention this gentleman on his application, as he was a major influence on my pursuing a career in engineering, but now that we found out the man donated a lot of money to the college in his will (he passed a few years ago and I guess lots of money takes a while to get to the charities), it seems either weird or presumptuous to mention it at all.</p>
<p>I'm thinking either that if we mention it they'll figure that: a) we knew him, so we are rolling in the dough too (false, we can't afford the EFC without going into debt due to house value), or b) we knew him, so we should get extra consideration if my son needs more money than the EFC (= more merit aid?). </p>
<p>So should he say anything or not? Is it appropriate or not? Would it possibly be beneficial in terms of aid? Again, if we didn't know about the donation, we would be mentioning it left and right because the gentleman was such a positive influence on my life and one of my favorite people ever. I can see my son saying "Like hey, I'm here because of Joe Blow" (before we knew) vs. "Like hey, I'm here because of THE Joe Blow, of Joe Blow Hall and Joe Blow Dining Services and Joe Blow Library" (after we found out).</p>
<p>(Or maybe I worry too much; I've certainly not been in this circumstance before, but I don't want to mess my son up at one of his top choices.)</p>
<p>IMO, no. I’ve known people who were related to donors, and had donors put in a word and they still got rejected, and they were viable candidates, not long shots.</p>
<p>I’m not sure you get what I said. We had NO IDEA previously this guy had ANY money at all, and many school ask (and I ask when I do alumni interviews) “do you know anybody who went to State University?”.</p>
<p>It’s just a shame as he was a big influence, and the big donation is making it disappear into nothing.</p>
<p>I’ve never see an application ask if you “know anyone” who went to the university. That’s very different from have alumni in the family. How was your son going to mention him on the app? In his essays? Let’s put it this way - would he have dropped the name in a different college? Was the name only in there because this person was a grad? If so I would not bring it up. It has nothing to do with him being a large donor.</p>
<p>Really, wanting to mention him ‘left and right’ in the first place sounds like a bad move. Now it sounds worse. It’s not like you don’t know so don’t try to rewind time. Either he mentions it once and appropriately, or not at all.</p>
<p>If someone is asking you during your interview if you “knew” or “know” anyone who went to a particular school, they are asking you if you have any prior frame of reference for the school or context in which you’ve developed an interest or curiosity about the school. (“Our good neighbor is a great guy who talks a lot about his years at State U and he says they were the best years of his life.”) </p>
<p>This is about the ONLY context in which it would be appropriate to mention knowing someone affiliated with a school. And as for “knowing” someone well enough to warrant a mention in an application - someone you say had a profound influence on you - yet all this time apparently having not even a ballpark idea of their financial worth until after probate of their will, says you should possibly admit to yourself that you didn’t really know this person as well as you think you did.</p>
<p>The word meretricious comes to my mind. And that word doesn’t occur to me too frequently.</p>
<p>As for impact on FA, I have no idea how this could possibly ever come into play. Why would someone presume that because you “know” someone at the financial level of a benefactor, that there would be any putative conclusion that your own family needs more or less FA? </p>
<p>It sounds like this donor person was a “major influence” on the PARENT becoming an engineer. I’m not sure that has ANYTHING to do with the student applicant at all.</p>
<p>Like I said upstream …name dropping. Surely this OP has more worthwhile and personal things that have affected HIM.</p>