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<p>I sincerely believe that this is what happened in the one case that I described. Keep in mind that when I say that the school’s endowment is low, I mean low (think around 30 million neighborhood). It might not be bc of what I suspect, and the family suspects, but I think that it is very possible. After all, it is easier to accept one student and offer 10k, than it is to accept another and offer 30k for 2 years, and then 10k for 2 years.</p>
<p>I had concerns when our oldest applied and then rejected some top universities and some generous merit offers from highly selective colleges that our younger one might apply to. We sent sincerely appreciative thank you notes to the rejected colleges, explaining the ultimate selection and why (in some cases financial, in some cases because of academic program). I think the private schools do pay some attention and some even survey to find out how to improve yield.</p>
<p>I was also concerned about prejudicing against other applicants from my kids’ high school. Some local alumni interviewers have told me that they think bad experiences with previous accepted applicants–or with our HS Guidance Dept.-- had biased certain colleges (Ivy) against our high school’s kids–because no mattter how great the kid, some colleges would not accept anyone from our high school for years. I can guess reasons–overtouted kids with well-connected parents, who flunk out, get arrested, back out of an ED acceptance, drop out of a team sport commitment, etc. </p>
<p>My point is that colleges may pay more attention to the performance, good and bad, of kids who have matriculated from your high school than to what a sibling in your family has decided.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine them tracking that info - and I also can’t imagine them caring! Colleges know that kids can only attend ONE college, even if they apply to 8. And how to track info about prior applicants???.. colleges would need a computer program that would compare a list of current applicants against the previous 10 (8? 5?) years of accepted applicants by… how? Checking addresses for similarities? Parental names? How would you get that information??? And as for “remembering” - I have a hard time remembering the names of the 22 children who were in my class last year. If I was an adcom, do you think I would remember the 1800 applicants who were offered admission but chose not to attend this year, and then be able to connect their names two years later to the younger brother/sister when he/she applies? Not likely. :eek:</p>
<p>I agree, Anxiousmom. Unless something really stood out, I would not remember either.</p>
<p>Actually, one person in admissions asked if we were related to someone who shares our last name. This person applied in the past and was still in their computer. The person’s name came up when they had to look up some admission info on about my son. We don’t have a common last name and this was at a smaller sized private school. No, we were not related to the person that they inquired about and my son was accepted to that school.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s imput. </p>
<p>I guess I am mainly concerned with 2 or 3 private schools in particular who offered D # 1 very selective merit scholarships. Both were given on the basis of older D’s musical talent, leadership in student government and her founding/ directing an acapella group.</p>
<p>Younger daughter also sings, is in student government and is a member of the same acapella group which is still going strong. I can’t help but think that younger D’s application might “ring a bell” if the same committee reviews her for admission or merit scholarship. For now, younger D’s GPA is lower, so she would more likely accept these admissions if they were offered. I guess we will find out in time.</p>
<p>Wow, if some of the above mentioned biases are true my daughter is screwed!!</p>
<p>She will be applying to college this fall.
Her brother will be a junior at Harvard this fall.</p>
<p>He turned down 13 acceptances from well known schools when he selected Harvard. My daughter will be applying to many of those same 13 schools that he rejected. If sure hope that those schools aren’t prejudiced against her because her brother rejected them.</p>
<p>On the other hand my daughter will be applying to some of the same 6 schools that rejected her brother. So if the above comments are true she may also get screwed by those schools too because they did not find her brother and therefore our family gene pool “worthy”. From a sibling rivalry standpoint I think she’d really like to get accepted at a school that had rejected her brother so she could “rub it in”.</p>
<p>Looks like she needs to apply to some colleges that her brother didn’t apply to but with him having applied to 20 top schools and her being a pretty good student with high ambitions that may not be easy.</p>
<p>Maybe, as one of the previous posters said, Harvard will “give her a break” and accept her since her brother goes there.</p>
<p>BTW, a girl on my son’s floor at Harvard had two older sisters who also went to Harvard. None of her parents/grandparents went to Harvard so they are not legacies. Three sisters all getting accepted at Harvard a few years apart would seem to indicate a advantage to siblings of a student.</p>
<p>There is some evidence, mostly anecdotal, that some schools will waitlist or even reject qualified applicants if they have good reason to believe the student won’t matriculate if admitted. But I don’t believe that a sibling going to Harvard would, by itself, be enough to trigger such an idea. I think the answer to this is for students to show strong interest in the schools in which they are actually interested.</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt. The counselors at my sons’ schools have suspicions of some doing that are not supposed to be happening, but they do not think siblings’ turning down schools is one of them. Again, there could be individual situations that do occur. All kinds of things can happen on an individual situation. But unless there is something outstanding (and I mean outstanding in a negative way) about the siblings interaction with a college, it isn’t something to be tracked. I know too many kids accepted at schools that their siblings rejected.</p>
<p>I’m trying to think of situations in which a student’s actions might cause a school to remember him negatively. Perhaps if he accepted a prestigious scholarship, went to the ceremony, etc., and then bailed at the last minute when he got off the waiting list somewhere else? Maybe if he clearly lied about his level of interest?</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback HUNT.</p>
<p>Regarding your observation “that some schools will waitlist or even reject qualified applicants if they have good reason to believe the student won’t matriculate if admitted”, my son had a floormate freshman year who wanted to study theoretical physics. He applied to four colleges - Harvard, Princeton, CalTech and Washington University. He was accepted by Harvard, Princeton & CalTech but rejected (not waitlisted) by Washington University.</p>
<p>Besides having an impeccable academic record in high school his father is well known Harvard economics professor, so the student would get free tuition at Harvard if accepted.</p>
<p>I think his case is an extreme example of a college (Washington University) realizing that an applicant is over qualified for their school and therefore there is almost zero chance of that student attending their college if they accepted him. So why “waste an acceptance” on him and hurt their yield percentage.</p>
<p>And, yes, like you said it is very important to show genuine interst in the colleges that you really like. I urge my daughter to participate in all the online chat sessions, etc. for the schools which interest her.</p>
<p>I know a family with children 1 year apart. The first was accepted to school A with a nice merit scholarship. He turned it down and went elsewhere (where he is very happy). The second was accepted to school A, and received a full tuition scholarship. He is very happy there.</p>