Anonymous wrote:Especially if they're a legacy and your kid isn't.

At most ivies these days, being a legacy is like a warm bucket of spit. There are so many highly-qualified legacy kids that if the school didn't want your kid before when they were taking 30% of legacy applicants (why, hello Harvard), then they aren't going to want your kid now that you've called up to whine in some AD's ear. Unless your family donated a building or something, but they probably took that into consideration during the first round when they waitlisted/ rejected your kid.

Anonymous wrote:It happens more than you think folks. Usually people are smart enough not to tell others that they've "made an inquiry" about another student getting in over their own kid.

If they don't tell anyone, then how do you know it happens?

I'm with PP who said parents who call, call about their own kid. Had anyone ever heard of a school rescinding an acceptance and giving the spot to the complaining family? Schools really only rescind acceptances for falsified transcripts or declining grades, etc., but even if a complaining family could prove this, there's no guarantee their own snowflake is going to be the very next kid the school wants to pull off the waitlist. I can't imagine anyone smart thinking this would be a viable strategy.

Especially if they're a legacy and your kid isn't.

^^It is not so much why your kid over thiers, but why not theirs in the first place.

It happens more than you think folks. Usually people are smart enough not to tell others that they've "made an inquiry" about another student getting in over their own kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:18 -- yes this happened at an elite area suburban private school here for girls.

Frankly, this sounds improbable. Did you ever actually see these letters challenging the admissions decisions? But let's say for the sake of argument that it did happen. So what? You know that any admissions staff would have a good chuckle about the letters, right? They, you and your DD would have the last laugh. Forget it -- life is too short.

Sounds like Holton Arms. And as much as I'm sick of their booster, I also have my doubts about this hater.

Anonymous wrote:I've had it happen. When my dd got into an Ivy -- a few disgruntled parents at her private school wrote to the Ivy to ask why my dd got in and not theirs. And, then they went on to pinpoint why they didn't my dd should have gotten in. They wrote about their own kid's attributes.

Yes. What people around here sometimes miss is that some of the least likely looking people can have some serious connections. Then parents get very mad when they find out that they completely misjudged the situation. And also DC can have some serious accomplishments that are not advertized (obviously not for K!)

Anonymous wrote:12:18 -- yes this happened at an elite area suburban private school here for girls.

Frankly, this sounds improbable. Did you ever actually see these letters challenging the admissions decisions? But let's say for the sake of argument that it did happen. So what? You know that any admissions staff would have a good chuckle about the letters, right? They, you and your DD would have the last laugh. Forget it -- life is too short.