<p>Now that the dust has settled on the applications for our senior children, I have a question. Do colleges have a negative bias against families whose children were offered admission but chose another school? My second D is interested in some of the schools that my older daughter has applied to. Do you think a college would reject a child simply because her sibling opted not to attend? Do the colleges keep records of these things and do they access them when a familiar name is filed?</p>
<p>I think it is highly unlikely to have a negative impact as long as when the older child turned it down he or she did it appropriately (politely and before deadline). My younger child applied to several schools that my older child had turned down and was accepted at all of them. (She was not, however, accepted at the school from which my older child graduated.)</p>
<p>mattmom, thank you for answering. I would like to hear from others about this subject. I have been wondering about this too.</p>
<p>I think the schools will evaluate your younger daughter on her own merits.</p>
<p>I would also like to know from parents if this effected the merit and/or financial aid package for the second child.</p>
<p>I agree with mattmom. My first son applied and was accepted to an EA school which he declined after being accepted at his ED school. My second son has been offered admission at the same EA school. I believe schools evaluate each candidate on their own merits. Not only would it be difficult and time-consuming to maintain records that enable them to cross-check earlier sibling applications but they might erroneously pass on potentially strong candidates who might actually be interested in matriculating.</p>
<p>I can't believe that anyone would maintain these records!</p>
<p>ahh, but they do have old applicants on file. I called 2 schools to verify that my son's app was complete. They asked for his midddle name b/c they had an applicant that had the same first and last name as our son (turns out not for this year, but this person applied to 2 of the same schools a few years ago). Our last name is not common either, so I was surprised. They had a few ppl with our last name who applied, and none were even distant relatives.</p>
<p>This has been a concern of mine, too, especially in regard to merit aid. My older son turned down two tier 1 schools with substantial scholarships. My younger son is considering one of those schools and I have been a little worried that they would hold it against him. I don't know if they maintain the records, but the high school name might ring a bell to a regional adcom familiar with the local territory because it's not one that sends too many applicants to upper tier colleges.</p>
<p>I can add something here. One of the schools my older child turned down did offer him some merit aid (we had not applied for financial aid). The same school also offered my younger child merit aid, a little bit less per year, but probably exactly in proportion to how her GPA and SATs compared to her brother's.</p>
<p>How long do colleges keep old applications?</p>
<p>LKF - re: keeping records, it depends. Back in the old days, my college kept paper applications for @ 5-7 yrs. (i forget which, but at least 5). But it becomes problematic for space purposes to keep them much longer.
Eventually, they are shredded. The only thing I remember using old apps was when the applicant applied later as a transfer candidate.
Nowadays with electronic record-keeping systems, you can probably keep the record of application on a database, but it would only have the bare facts of the applicant in the system. This too, I would suspect would eventually be purged from a database after a period of time.</p>
<p>interesting topic that I had never thought about until this string ...</p>
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My younger son is considering one of those schools and I have been a little worried that they would hold it against him.
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<p>Even if a school does hold it against a younger sibling (which would surprise me) there is nothing the younger child can do about it ... if the school warrents their targeted list of schools I think they should apply (whatever happened with any other relatives)</p>
<p>My son was accepted this season at a college that also accepted my daughter 3 years ago. I was worried because she had been accepted at the Honors college and then never sent them a note saying she was going elsewhere.</p>
<p>My older one was accepted at a school 2 years ago with a merit scholarship which he turned down. My younger one has been accepted to the same school and is being considered for a very substantial scholarship. In this case, his older brother's turn down had no affect.</p>
<p>Very reassuring replies - thanks, everyone!</p>