The number seemed way high to me, too. But it occurs to me that there’s a good possibility that the purpose of the “presidential read” was not so much potentially to admit the candidate as to allow the relevant development staff to tell the parent that they were so important the university president had read their kid’s application, but he had regretfully decided against admission. There might even be a letter from the president to that effect. Probably more effective in preserving a relationship than a mere courtesy waitlist. And it takes the heat off the admissions staff.
In other words, this may not have been undermining the admissions office. It may have been backing them up.
That’s one way to guess at a positive spin. Lol. Could be, who knows?
But we don’t know if it’s any more accurate than all leading to 450 admissions.
I’m not as cynical as some, or as positive as you portray.
Probably somewhere in between, but more likely, “let’s see what we can do to help the applicant” thumb on the scale.
Especially when they can admit twice as many students and not lose on the quality scale.
I do think these students can easily succeed and are at least marginally qualified. If not, grad rates would show this over time.
They probably just aren’t as interesting to the intial readers and are most certainly no going to help on the lower ses front or help with the new pell Grant component of the usnwr ranking.
They probably needed help to overcome a “likeness” problem, as they fill less of the diverse mosaic the adcoms aspired to build.
Two other very wealthy applicants were rejected for similar reasons in the same year. They too were fine individuals, but the college did not have “backup” majors to meet their needs. It worked out well for them as they did not appeal to the President and matriculated at two other colleges which were much “higher” as measured on the “acceptance rate” scale. Both of these other colleges had realistic alternative majors. For them, it was a “win-win” situation.
We were a Division III college so there were no “athletic” scholarships, but we still wanted to win Division III games. It took a while to convince a new coach that it was not fair to admit students who did not fit the academics at the college. He had come from a different environment where you could major in anything.
On CC we read the enthusiastic discussions about the “big time” athletics universities and the positive influences on the student body’s spirit. It has now reached the point where I wonder in many (not all) cases if the athlete’s right to an appropriate education is always relevant.
I like to believe that all “rejections” are not necessarily bad situations!
Definitely agree that sometimes a rejection is actually doing the kid a favor, so the kid can go to a better academic fit school and get an education that will actually get more out of.
@hzhao2004 I 100% agree that admissions decisions are tied to development, but that is not what the Northwestern PR team is claiming. They claim “strong protections” exist between the two departments – which is demonstrably untrue since their Prez reviewed 550(!) applications.
And while we are talking fundraising…IRS rules require that the local classical music station donor gift acknowledgement letter reduce the documented donation amount by the value of the bumper magnet the donor is sent as a thank you gift, so how is it possible that donors who make donations to buy their child’s way into a college can take a tax deduction for the full amount? Shouldn’t they have to deduct the of value of the “thank you gift” they received – admission for their student?
I hesitate to write this but here goes. Our S19 was never really considering NU even though both my husband and I are alums. My husband wanted him to consider it though. I spoke to a friend who is still very involved in the alumni group in Evanston about legacies. He flat out asked me if we were Gold Level donors. Hm. We have given a little over the years but I had no idea what level Gold Level was. There must be some connection between how much alums give and legacy status making a difference in admissions.
This makes me wonder how admissions decided which apps landed on Morty Shapiro’s desk.
AT NU, Gold Level is 10 to 19 years of consecutive giving. There are multiple reasons colleges want alums to give: money is obviously the first, but the second, less obvious one, is that alumni giving percentage is part of the USNWR metrics. The reality in elite college admissions fundraising is that most alumni give in the $100-500 range which is not enough to really matter in the scope of multi, multi-million and billion dollar campaigns. Fundraising departments work alumni for annual fund gifts because it helps “build the donor pipeline” and because increasing alumni giving can help positively impact a colleges USNWR rank.
An interesting and little known fact: if a university keeps a “donor file” on you, then you have the legal right to review to review it. Not sure if your university has a file on you? If you are fairly wealthy and have made a few gifts then it is likely they do, complete with a “donor action plan” and detailed strategic “touches” from various people and departments. Watch out if you receive an “alumni award” or, heaven forbid, an “honorary degree” because a big “ask” is sure to follow. And if you are frightened by the amount of data Facebook has on you, then buckle up for when you review your “wealth screen” which colleges purchase on you to access highly detailed data on a your finances.
And all of the above applies to faculty donors too:)