Hey, so I’m applying ED to the Wharton School. I go to a super competitive, top 300 HS in the States, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when I figured out there are 4 other prospective applicants to the Wharton school early decision this year. 3 of these applicants are just typical US high school students with great grades, great personalities, and a normal life.
1 applicant, however, is not. He/she is the son of two Wharton MBA graduates, so he/she gets a huge legacy boost (Penn loves their legacies, I’ve heard). In addition, he/she told me (without knowing that I am looking to apply to Wharton as well) that his/her dad donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to Penn regularly. This student lives in a multi-million dollar house, drives a nice car-- he/she makes it known that they’re extremely well off in our school.
Would Penn just pick this other student without giving equal consideration to the other 4 applicants because of his/her legacy status / donor status? Does being a legacy / child of a donor boost chances to the point where AOs admit them regardless of lack of merit? Would Penn put this student in a separate application pool due to their donor/legacy status so that I wouldn’t have to compete with him/her?
(To be clear: this student and I are friends, and I’ve always known he/she was rich. I’m not trying to bring him/her down; I’m trying to figure out if I should use my ED shot somewhere else if this student’s privilege will just box out my application regardless of merit).
The qualifications of the legacy/donor applicant would have to be in the ballpark; Penn will not accept an unqualified candidate. But if your question is can/will Penn accept him/her over you because of legacy/donor when most other things are equal? Yes they can, and likely will. Will taking him/her automatically torpedo your app? Not necessarily. There is not min/max/quota per HS.
Is it possible? Yes. Likely? Yes. But Ivanka Trump did not get into Penn directly from ChoateRosemary Hall despite privilege , legacy and other attributes. Not all legacy, not all development are accepted. That’s why those Varsity Blues cheaters didn’t JUST donate the big bucks they did to the colleges they wanted for their kids.
Penn out and out tells legacy applicants they get a bump up in the ED round. Not for RD.
Based on what I have personally seen, I believe that Penn will accept a large donor’s child with only middling credentials (and not middling for Ivies, I mean middling for T50-100 schools). I am pretty certain, however, that the sums involved were more than a few hundred thousand dollars.
As others have said, that does not mean that you will not be accepted as well. However, in the situation I am thinking of, a number of extremely well qualified applicants from the same school were denied in that same year.
I think it’s possible, but not definite. It’s difficult to predict because there are other variables.
So I would give you the same advice that I would give my own child:
If Penn is your #1 choice by far, go for it and apply ED.
If not, you may want to take the strategic approach of hedging your bets and use your ED on another school where you feel like it will help you most.
Either way, your stats and resume are very impressive, and you will no doubt get into an excellent school.
It’s possible to (legally) buy a kid’s way into an Ivy. Jared Kushner is a famous example. I have a close friend whose alma mater, Yale, tried to extort money from him to guarantee his kid admission. (He’d already given hundreds of thousands of dollars.) Assuming that all Ivies have pretty similar policies, your classmate’s parents may not have given enough to guarantee him admission, or even give him a leg up beyond his legacy status. But it’s also possible Penn doesn’t play the game.
I’d suggest you not worry about other people’s chance of admission. It’s futile and will just make you more anxious.
You are best off being concerned only with yourself and your applications during this process, not comparing your chances to others.
Wharton is a reach school for any unhooked applicant, yourself included. Be sure to seek out and apply to a range of reach (including Wharton), match and safety schools that appear affordable (run net price calculators) and that you would be excited to attend. There are tons of amazing colleges/universities out there.