<p>Hypothetically if someone was to donate, say, 100-200k to a small school. ie. Endowment - 27m Could this gain them acceptance considering this school is a slight reach?</p>
<p>Furthermore if hypothetically this someone was to have a letter of recommendation from someone on the advisory board, could this influence anything?</p>
<p>Both of those actions would help your application.</p>
<p>However, using your vocabulary, both of those actions are ‘kosher’. The donation puts the applicant into the “hooked” category of development case and if you know someone on the advisory board who can recommend you, why wouldn’t you use them as a reference?</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, i see what you’re saying, didnt think of it that way. But what exactly is a global advisory board?</p>
<p>Board’s often have ‘advisory boards’ (which are really more like committees than aboard) which consist of well-connected and/or wealthy individuals, subject matter experts, celebrities, and past board members, to whom they can turn for assistance and advice - but these individuals do not have the same legal, fiduciary or moral responsibilities for managing the organization that the regular board has. Knowing someone on the advisory board well, may or may not have an impact on your application - it would probably come down to how well they know you and how critical they are to the organization. It’s a potential hook, as mentioned above.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply M’s mom. He is my parents best friends cousin. And its a vert tight nit community, and his nephew is one of my closest friends. So I think he will do what he can, I am not sure if he’s critical or not to the organization but he is very wealthy. So i’m assuming he has donated to Babson.</p>
<p>In my experience, you are unlikely to get much support from pulling these kinds of strings unless you clearly commit to him that this is your first choice school.</p>
<p>Honestly, bornalegend, that kind of connection won’t help you much. A letter from a significant donor or trustee will only help to tip a marginal application if an acceptance or denial would be likely to impact that donor’s future participation in the school. IOW, if you’re the child or grandchild of a major donor the school could hope to cement that financial relationship and would want to avoid losing future donations by denying you and upsetting your relative. A letter from your godparent, the trustee with whom you spend your summers, might help in that admissions might not want to risk causing issues with a trustee over an applicant who is clearly very important to them.</p>
<p>In this case the committee would see it as unlikely that the cousin of a close family friend would either end or increase their support for the school based on your admissions result. Furthermore it’s unlikely such a person could write a really compelling letter of recommendation for you. Many schools warn against submitting this kind of filler rec. Instead focus on getting strong letters of recommendations from those who know your academic work best, your teachers.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies, I am applying E.D to the school; This clearly shows my commitment. They ask for a 28/29 ACT Score, I have a 30. However my GPA is quite low, so i need to tip the scales in my favor. I know this man has donated quite significantly to the school before <em>Correction their endowment is 270M not 27M</em> and I would also be willing to donate to secure my admission. I have 2 strong subject references and a strong one from my counselor, I have 2 solid internship references as well. But i still need to compensate for that GPA. (I take IB so its not technically a GPA)</p>
<p>Im not looking for either of these things to get me in straight away, but just enough to be in a “Priority” pool.</p>
<p>Do NOT offer to make a donation to secure a position. It will be offensive to the admissions officer and unless you have the potential to make a high 6 figure donation (in which case you’d be a development admit anyway) it will not influence the committee. If your family does have a track record of major giving, say having dropped $50,000 on the annual fund at your prep school each of the last few years or playing a leadership role in the last campaign at your sister’s school that would be worth having your friend’s cousin mention to admissions. You do not want to do this yourself.</p>
<p>As to submitting 6 references when the school asks for 3…there’s an old saying in admissions, “The thicker the file the thicker the child.”</p>
<p>[W&M</a> Blogs The Thicker the File, the Less Competitive the Applicant](<a href=“http://blogs.wm.edu/2011/09/10/the-thicker-the-file-the-less-competitive-the-applicant/]W&M”>http://blogs.wm.edu/2011/09/10/the-thicker-the-file-the-less-competitive-the-applicant/)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1096777-thicker-file-thicker-applicant.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1096777-thicker-file-thicker-applicant.html</a></p>
<p>low 6 figures would be ok. I will ask him to slightly mention this, I provided exactly what the school asked for. 2 Subject, one counselor, and 1 or 2 internships. So in that regard I dont think im submitting to much, as for you comment on ‘youd be a development admit’ What do you mean by that?</p>
<p>Giving a what a school considers a large amount does put a family in the development pool which can affect admissions chances. Still not 100% and how much it helps depends on the school. I’ve known Trump, Icahn, and Rockefellow scions denied at schools where incredible amounts of money were donated, and in some cases those kids were within the admissable circle, I know.</p>
<p>As for knowing someone to advocate, ha! Depends directly on who that person is and how much influence he has with admissions and how much he is willing to put on the line. THere are literally thousands of connections, hundreds of thousands ,and most of them will barely do a student anything simply for that reason. It would have to be a serious direct appeal from someone with a lot of clout. I know many people in university setting in high ranking roles, and on boards and I’ve watched their own kids get declined. Can it make a difference? It could but in certain situations with certain people. If you gotta ask if it will make a difference, probably not. Those that are pretty sure it would, keep it mum.</p>
<p>Disappointed. I thought this thread involved bacon.</p>
<p>Cptofthehouse is right. A development admit is someone whose file has been flagged because they have the potential (and inclination) to be a major donor. Getting the development tip will only help candidates who are within range for the school. It will not get you into a school where you don’t meet the normal admissions standards.</p>
<p>It’s a bit of a delicate dance. Asking “How high a donation do I need to make to secure a place at your school?” will get you stony looks from underpaid admissions counselors and perhaps an “entitled rich kid thinks he can buy his way in” note in your file. On the other hand, if someone well placed can mention to admissions that you should be investigated as a potential development admit it may work in your favor. </p>
<p>Giving proactively could help you. On the other hand your parents could donate $100,000 only to see you still denied.</p>
<p>The best thing you can do is put together the strongest application possible and apply ED. BTW, if I were you I would avoid mentioning specific schools in your posts. You never know who’s lurking here and how they’ll interpret what you’ve written.</p>
<p>^^Eating bacon as I write this. Yum…</p>
<p>I assure you, selective schools get stacks upon stacks of reference letters from every connected person possible. Sometimes the most lowly recommendation will garner you more attention. Now if the president of the university invites the head of admissions to lunch for a non specific reason and after a lot of nice talk mentions you as an applicant, THAT would get some attention. Or if you happen to be his son. But Maria Schriver’s D was denied at BC (and the girl was no slouch) as well as the daughter of someone I know whose grandfather donated a lot and had the support of someone still donating. Huge disappointment. And that latter case I know pretty well–the girl could have been admitted without anyone blinking an eye–good student with scores well within the mid 50% group. Nope.</p>
<p>But I know a situation where a visiting prof wrote a rec, the student was WL, and when the prof found out (he is a high profile person who will remain unnamed) went straight to admissions and the student watched, yes, actually watched while on the cell phone with the guy, her status go to accepted on the computer. So, yes, it can happen in isolated situations when the ad com decides it’s better to not make the fuss and give the admit. But most of the time they will give the hundreds upon thousands letters, emails and requests little signicance, flagging them only if they are in specific categories, or show some urgency. Even then, they may WL rather than accept.</p>