We accidentally got on some special tier at a school, not my alma mater or my partners (we donated to a special initiative that has little to do with undergrad education) - this is a school with <15% acceptance rate. I would be SHOCKED if that is noticed in admissions.
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100% not moving needle! at those top schools on that list
(it may at some schools out there).
I doubt it really makes a difference anywhere. We are talking $20-40k at best, over a 20 year period. Hardly the kind of stuff that gets university presidents excited.
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that is my guess, too, I just know so little about the vast majority of schools, and how they run, left it open that I could be wrong! I went to a prep school (with huge fundraising operation) and an ivy, so realize this isnāt necessarily indicative of rest of schoolsā¦
Certainly not their mindset in my anecdote. Not big money, but more than $100.
Yale, Dartmouth, ND, etc. no particular love per se other than wanting their child to attend.
@DadOfJerseyGirl One Yale alumna that I know, after their kid was denied, stopped donating to Yale. Their kid attended Stanford.
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USC and UCLA. Both almost ridiculous amount of love for their school. Kind of sickening, too. As a former Triton, it repulses me to see the love fest they have for their schools. One is just a state school. The other a school for rich kids! Either way, UCSD rules! Goooo Tritons.
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If they think even 10K a year is going to make a big difference, I think they are very mistaken. But maybe they know something i donāt.
Anyway I went to one of the schools frequently mentioned in this thread and this is not my experience with peers at all. None think their moderate donations are getting their kid in..
In my circles, the consensus is you need to donate at leat $10 million to get a significant advantage at the most selective colleges, and even that is getting to be an old number.
I am also sure there are lots of colleges that would love, say, $2 million, but I would think at most of those colleges they are not so selective that would really be necessary, or maybe you could use just a chunk of it to do things to enhance the application.
And then of course $400K is a hard floor, because basically every full pay family is willing to ādonateā that much . . . .
So here in the suburbs around every other kid is wearing a Michigan, notre dame, u conn, Duke or Georgetown t shirt. These are the colleges that we big basketball powers in the 90s. I have never once thought this has anything to do with alumni interest, just fashion determined by Gen Xers
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that all sounds right to me, too. Not that I have background insight from behind scenes, just an interested observor that pays attention to such things:)
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Perhaps if you can offset the federal grant money that a university may have recently lost, youād have an advantage.
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Michigan. Somehow, theyāll find a way to tell you that they are a Michigan grad. 
(I know many, many ā¦ and while a lot of Michigan grads I know arenāt like that ā¦ so many I have met are.
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Michigan, Princeton, Penn State.
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You beat me to the punch! Are you in Southern California? We are and you see a lot of USC and UCLA license plate frames, bumper stickers, and flags on houses. Iād say even more so for USC than UCLA. A family friendās daughter went to USC and met her husband there. They have a USC themed room in their house (itās their computer room/den/guest room). When their daughter was born, they sent out a birth announcement that said āfuture trojan,ā and their daughter was wearing a USC onesie. Their daughter and their son are going to USC and their daughter who is a freshman in high school, wants to only apply to USC. They also go to as many USC football games as they can and they had the USC marching band at their wedding (which was at USC). Iām glad theyāre proud of their school, but sometimes it seems that all they talk about is USC and their lives seem to pretty much revolve around it. To each their own I guess!
H went to the funeral of a co-workerās wife who was a USC alum and the casket was draped in a USC banner.
At the same time, I know several other USC alums who you wouldnāt even know went to USC, unless it came up in the conversation in some way. Or ones who might watch the football games on tv and wear a USC hat, but donāt talk much about it otherwise.
I know I seem very critical here, but if anything I find it very interesting how devoted to their schools some alums are. Why are some so devoted, but not others? Is the fact that she met her husband at USC, the reason my family friendās daughter is so devoted to the school? I will also say, itās great that these alums had such a positive experience.
I havenāt really seen it a lot in my area, but I do know that Notre Dame alums are a devoted bunch. We have a mom who volunteers in the office at my school who went there (along with her whole family) and her brother has a boat called the Fighting Irish. The kid who is a senior will be attending starting next fall.
Wasnāt Ole Miss the school that the guy went to in The Blindside? And there was a line in the movie saying that they family had a second home near the school so they could go to all the football games?
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More accurately, āFailed Trojan.ā
(Sorry, thatās just what I think of every time I hear that team name.)
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Haha! It took a second for me to figure out what you meant!
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I think āTrojan Man!ā
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I also think that USC fans are so very pro USC. However, I never hear USC say anything bad about UCLA people, but UCLA people always hate on USC people (calling them University of Spoiled Children or saying that USC students are UCLA rejects, etc.). Thereās a sense of envy with Bruins for some reason. I think USC fans really donāt think about UCLA while UCLA fans always think about USC.
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OMG, YES!!! I went to USC for grad school and a handful of UCLA alum I know are sooo disparaging!!!