<p>Yes, it could help. Having a parent who is nationally or internationally prominent could help you in admission to virtually any college. Having a parent who is prominent statewide could help one in admission to in-state private and public universities.</p>
<p>Colleges would know about your father because of the part of the app in which you put what your parents’ employment is.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I think it’s too bad that you’re not like a friend of mine whose father is a well known longtime U.S. senator. We had a national fellowship together, and a member of the selection committee said that in addition to the woman’s accomplishments, what made her stand out was how she went far out of her way to avoid their questions designed to find out if – since her last name was the same as a famous U.S. senator, and she hailed from his city – whether she was related to him.</p>
<p>She managed to gracefully dodge their questions, which were oblique. They didn’t learn until after her acceptance that she is the senator’s daughter. Since then, she has made other accomplishments – including getting an Ivy graduate degree and heading a national organization-- and has continued to go out of her way to obtain these things on her own merits, not by riding on her father’s coattails.</p>
<p>She’s a wonderful person-- ethical, modest, kind, hard working, visionary. A lot of my high opinion of her father is based on his having raised a daughter like her. I’ve talked with her about her upbringing, and her parents went far out of their way to make sure she was involved in things like community service so that she had compassion for others and didn’t go through life feeling entitled.</p>