Legacy and Donors

<p>Whats the policy/protocol that Harvard/Ivy Leagues have in general for the admission of students with major legacy or with wealthy parents? I know people from around my area that haven't worked hard a day in their life in school and are going to Harvard because their parents are just rich. Also, students I know that have gone through the hardest adversity like losing siblings, having a severe eating disorder/disease (being allergic to everything basically) and participate in 4 years of top varsity sports/1st ranked in entire school for grades, and have gotten denied. I hate this system- really based on a meritocracy...</p>

<p>The few people you feel have been “deserving” – are a tiny sampling. I’ve interviewed about 300 applicants to a Harvard peer – and they get rejected at at +90% clip. And I’ll tell you that most of them appear to be “deserving”</p>

<p>That’s got very little to do with it. There is a finite no. of slots and ~30K applications. What you witness is statistically insignificant. Sorry. But whenever ANYONE hits the submit button (unless they’re a recruited athlete or one of a handful of development cases), their chances are close to nil.</p>

<p>And you’d advance your argument more by not making hyperbolic statements such as this: “I know people from around my area that haven’t worked hard a day in their life in school and are going to Harvard because their parents are just rich.” It just makes you sound like you have sour grapes since your statement, on the face, is just unbelievable. The kid of wealthy parents I knew at my alma mater were AMAZING. </p>

<p>“I know people from around my area that haven’t worked hard a day in their life in school and are going to Harvard because their parents are just rich.”</p>

<p>That is complete nonsense. Did you ask them their grades, SAT/ACT scores and extracurriculars?</p>

<p>Chances are that they are very smart and hard-working, as are their parents, and those traits resulted in family wealth and acceptances to Harvard. The wealth didn’t cause the acceptances.</p>

<p>"…1st ranked in entire school for grades…"</p>

<p>There are 38,000 high schools in America. Thirty-eight thousand valedictorians. Harvard has less than 1700 seats in their freshman class. You do the math.</p>

<p>I think everyone acknowledges that extreme wealth, coupled with family history and extreme “generosity,” can get a kid into Harvard or an equivalent college, but (a) the donation levels involved are astronomical, probably approaching 8 figures at this point, (b) I would be surprised if any of HYP admitted more than 4-5 students per class on that basis, and © they still have to meet basic standards for academic success there. </p>

<p>I have repeated here, a number of times, a story I heard second hand (but reliably so) about a family with two generations of Stanford graduates (and remember, Stanford hasn’t been around so long, the number of three-generation Stanford families is just beginning to creep up now, and this story happened about 8 years ago). Their name is on a bunch of things, including a couple endowed professorships; the price tag for that alone in 2014 dollars is at least $5 million apiece, and maybe more. When a third-generation child was in 11th grade at boarding school, a high ranking development officer asked to meet with the parents, whom he knew well, of course. This was the message: Anticipating that they would be interested in having their child attend Stanford, the college had taken a discreet look at him. To avoid potential embarrassment to themselves and to the university, it would be best if their child did not apply to Stanford.</p>

<p>A family friend who is in the Forbes 400 was for many years a trustee of another university at the same level, and has his name on buildings, programs, and professorships there. Only one of his children went to college there, the youngest (and most academically successful). It’s not that the others were dumb or slouches, they went to brand-name, high ranking private colleges, although not quite at the same level of selectivity.</p>

<p>The handful of “development” cases that do get accepted help bring in enormous contributions that enhance the quality and prestige of the institution, benefiting all of its students, faculty, and alumni. That’s hardly an unfair deal, and it’s completely unlikely to have made a difference in causing the rejection of any academically deserving candidate you know.</p>

<p>There is another reason that legacies are a good thing. They help create a continuing community of stakeholders that persists over the course of generations who support the institution even once their direct involvement as students or parents of students comes to an end. It wouldn’t be a good thing for a school if everyone who attended was a legacy, but it is a good thing that some folks are legacies. These are folks for whom the institutional history is part of their own family history, who may remember, or have had related to them, important lessons from the past, who carry on traditions, and who can comprise the core support of the institution over time.</p>

<p>The alternative is that the only folks with even semi-permanent ties are faculty and administrators. And that’s a bad thing for a school, when the faculty and administration have all the formal and informal power, and are the only stakeholders considered to have long-term vested interests in the institution. Schools flourish best when they are real communities, and where all stakeholders - faculty, administrators, other employees, students, parents of current students, alumni, parents of alumni, friends of the institution - all have a sense of belonging to the community in an on-going way.</p>

<p>This may not be 100% relevant to the way that the discussion has progressed, but it is a comment that is relevant to the thread.</p>

<p>“But whenever ANYONE hits the submit button (unless they’re a recruited athlete or one of a handful of development cases), their chances are close to nil.”</p>

<p>@T26E4‌ I’ve seen you say this before. Do you really believe that this is always the case? Or is it advice that is generally applicable to 98% of the kids on this site? </p>

<p>So I get a little bombastic sometimes! You caught me! LOL</p>