Has anyone found friendship with a Director of admissions to be an advantage?

[Anonymous]

Admissions person here.

Do people sometimes pull up a file and look at it when a friend/neighbor/relative is applying? Absolutely.

But you don't know if there was any concession made. These people posting here as if a random comment at a golf club or a courtesy interview (that's what we call it) had any impact.

Pay attention to these cautionary tales about students being in over their heads. It can be devastating to the student's confidence to be told they belong somewhere and find themselves completely overwhelmed. Some may not graduate and that's a lot of money spent on what the student may look back on as a very painful time.

[Anonymous]

Op here.
Wow, this post has scratched a nerve.
I love the array of insults that have been hurled my way: my child is certainly under qualified and will flounder. My spouse is certainly only "one of many" friends to this person. I am an amoral person for even raising the question.

LOl. I have no idea whether my kid will apply to this school. The AD is one of my spouse's closest friends in the world. My kid goes to a top DC private and does exceptionally well. College admissions these days are a total crap-shoot even for the highest qualified kids. That's all I know. It's just a question people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Admissions person here.

Do people sometimes pull up a file and look at it when a friend/neighbor/relative is applying? Absolutely.

But you don't know if there was any concession made. These people posting here as if a random comment at a golf club or a courtesy interview (that's what we call it) had any impact.

Pay attention to these cautionary tales about students being in over their heads. It can be devastating to the student's confidence to be told they belong somewhere and find themselves completely overwhelmed. Some may not graduate and that's a lot of money spent on what the student may look back on as a very painful time.

Nuh, the most selective colleges and unis have upwards of 95+ graduation rate. As hard as Caltech is, their graduation rate is even higher. Once in, there are support systems in place to help students. It’s the no-name Podunk unis you have to worry about with their 30-40% graduation rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here.
Wow, this post has scratched a nerve.
I love the array of insults that have been hurled my way: my child is certainly under qualified and will flounder. My spouse is certainly only "one of many" friends to this person. I am an amoral person for even raising the question.

LOl. I have no idea whether my kid will apply to this school. The AD is one of my spouse's closest friends in the world. My kid goes to a top DC private and does exceptionally well. College admissions these days are a total crap-shoot even for the highest qualified kids. That's all I know. It's just a question people!

Then apply and see what happens assuming your kid is even interested in that school. And don’t mention it to the friend AD and let the chips fall.

[Anonymous]

We asked our relative. He replied that admissions data is sealed and absolutely no one could help. My guess he had been asked many times! Very popular school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are right, there are other factors at play. There are athletes who are not as strong academically who will get in over kids who will perform better academically at the college level than the athlete. There are kids whose parents went to the school and donate money to the school who will get preferential treatment. I teach my kids that being qualified is only one component of being successful in life. You need to be able to connect with people, build relationships, and seek out resources you can utilize in accomplishing your goals. I feel sorry for the poor kids who think life is a strict meritocracy. They are in for a rude awakening.

+1

My DS graduated from public HS with B average GPA and 1200 on the SAT and yet he got accepted into one of the Ivies as recruited athlete. Many students from his HS that got 1570+ SAT with 4.75 GPA got rejected from Ivies. DS graduated from Ivies 4 years later. DS is not URM. It is nothing new here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right, there are other factors at play. There are athletes who are not as strong academically who will get in over kids who will perform better academically at the college level than the athlete. There are kids whose parents went to the school and donate money to the school who will get preferential treatment. I teach my kids that being qualified is only one component of being successful in life. You need to be able to connect with people, build relationships, and seek out resources you can utilize in accomplishing your goals. I feel sorry for the poor kids who think life is a strict meritocracy. They are in for a rude awakening.

+1

My DS graduated from public HS with B average GPA and 1200 on the SAT and yet he got accepted into one of the Ivies as recruited athlete. Many students from his HS that got 1570+ SAT with 4.75 GPA got rejected from Ivies. DS graduated from Ivies 4 years later. DS is not URM. It is nothing new here.

Average SAT for recruited atheletes at ivies is around 1250.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right, there are other factors at play. There are athletes who are not as strong academically who will get in over kids who will perform better academically at the college level than the athlete. There are kids whose parents went to the school and donate money to the school who will get preferential treatment. I teach my kids that being qualified is only one component of being successful in life. You need to be able to connect with people, build relationships, and seek out resources you can utilize in accomplishing your goals. I feel sorry for the poor kids who think life is a strict meritocracy. They are in for a rude awakening.

+1

My DS graduated from public HS with B average GPA and 1200 on the SAT and yet he got accepted into one of the Ivies as recruited athlete. Many students from his HS that got 1570+ SAT with 4.75 GPA got rejected from Ivies. DS graduated from Ivies 4 years later. DS is not URM. It is nothing new here.

The white middle class love to throw stones at the URM. Apparently it's the rich and well connected they should be mad at.

[Anonymous]

It certainly shouldn’t be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are right, there are other factors at play. There are athletes who are not as strong academically who will get in over kids who will perform better academically at the college level than the athlete. There are kids whose parents went to the school and donate money to the school who will get preferential treatment. I teach my kids that being qualified is only one component of being successful in life. You need to be able to connect with people, build relationships, and seek out resources you can utilize in accomplishing your goals. I feel sorry for the poor kids who think life is a strict meritocracy. They are in for a rude awakening.

+1

My DS graduated from public HS with B average GPA and 1200 on the SAT and yet he got accepted into one of the Ivies as recruited athlete. Many students from his HS that got 1570+ SAT with 4.75 GPA got rejected from Ivies. DS graduated from Ivies 4 years later. DS is not URM. It is nothing new here.

The white middle class love to throw stones at the URM. Apparently it's the rich and well connected they should be mad at.

Sounds like they’ll need more stones then: racial preferences, rich whites, connected whites, side door...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here.
Wow, this post has scratched a nerve.
I love the array of insults that have been hurled my way: my child is certainly under qualified and will flounder. My spouse is certainly only "one of many" friends to this person. I am an amoral person for even raising the question.

LOl. I have no idea whether my kid will apply to this school. The AD is one of my spouse's closest friends in the world. My kid goes to a top DC private and does exceptionally well. College admissions these days are a total crap-shoot even for the highest qualified kids. That's all I know. It's just a question people!

Why are you asking it then? It’s your question, not anyone else’s here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That person will likely recuse themselves from any discussion of consideration of your kid.

How do you know that? There are many things going behind the scene that you just do not know.

I teach golf at a high end country club in the DMV and one of my students is a CFO of a fortune 100 company. During one of the lessons, he asked about my family and I told him that my DD is applying to one of Ivies and I think she has zero chance of getting accepted. It just happened the CFO also attended that Ivy school and he made a few calls to the admission office and the school president. Next thing I know, my DD got accepted.

White privilege, no?

You don't think it's possible that any of the people involved are POC? You're the racist.

[Anonymous]

I am friends with the Director of Admissions at a Top 25 University. Because we are friends, this person will recuse him/herself from the admissions process. My child will have an advantage because dc is a legacy and I have given a significant amount of money to the school. This is entirely independent from my friendship with this person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Professional courtesy. It’s everywhere.

This thread is not about professional courtesy. An admissions officer helping a friend is not a professional transaction. An example of professional courtesy would be if the admissions officer at Princeton gave a interview to a less than stellar kid whose parent was an admissions officer at Boston College. The courtesy is a favor between two people in the same profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a creepy discussion.

Your child should to to school where they earn acceptance.

And you should befriend people that you like, because they have merit as human beings.

OP. My spouse became good friends with this person 30 years prior to our child applying.

Great. If they have any ethics, they will recuse themselves.