Question about board influence

[Anonymous]

Nice! The crazy OP bookmarked this and put in a calendar reminder so she could come back and troll again once admissions decisions were out. Now THAT is commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor plans to apply her child to a very selective school (7th grade) this year. Her DHs boss happens to be the chairperson of the school's board. She is convinced this will gain her child admittance to the school and apparently the boss has been hinting it won't be a problem to get her child into the school. Does this kind of thing really happen? I suppose in a town where it's who you know not what you know that I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.

Don't you think this is outing your friend or yourself?

[Anonymous]

Board members are bound by a regulation of non-disclosure about things they discuss at their meetings. Their main charge is to uphold the reputation of the school. You will probably do better with a very experienced parent. maybe someone on the PTA.

[Anonymous]

100 percent true. Big Hook.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course OP. Why would it surprise you? My Dd ended up at a different school, but a very rich board member of a different school wanted her to go to that school. She got in but ended up at another school. We thanked the man because we didn't even know he was pushing so hard in her behalf.

[Anonymous]

09:47 - It wouldn't be discussed in a Board Meeting.

The Chair would mail (or perhaps hand deliver) a recommendation letter to the Director of Admissions. Chances are - not every Board member is recommending someone every year and certainly not for the same grade. I could see Admissions taking a rec from a Board Chair quite seriously and something really huge would have to go wrong in the application process to derail that candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes it does happen. At one top private, every board member gets a free pass for an admit every year. But the board member approaches you if they are willing to sponsor your child. You don't ask the board member.

LOL.

[Anonymous]

At our private, where my DH is on the board, they definitely don't a free pass for a kid. It might help the application to have a recommendation from a board member, but it is far from a guarantee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes it does happen. At one top private, every board member gets a free pass for an admit every year. But the board member approaches you if they are willing to sponsor your child. You don't ask the board member.

LOL. Please don't buy into this person's silly tales. They are trying to get people riled up.

Can a board member's influence help? Sometimes. But the kid would have to be in the mix to start with, and generally if the board member doesn't know the child well, the schools will not put a lot of stock in the recommendation. They are very used to people writing extra letters -- every school has a very lovely template for the response to such a recommendation. If it's a board member, the lovely template will come via a handwritten note by the Admissions Director -- but they'll still send it.