If you donate or consider donating to a college, what effect would the college using legacy in admissions have on whether you donate and/or the amount you donate?
USC saw a massive drop in alumni nominations as they got more selective in the past 10-15 years, and thatâs because their children arenât getting admitted.
In my personal opinion, I donât see why anyone would donate to a university when they already charge so much in tuition, and there isnât much to gain from donating. I got denied from most opportunities at UCLA when I was a student there, so I wouldnât donate a cent
I donât give to my alma mater (nor to any other charity that I support) for personal gain- I do it because I believe in the mission.
THISâŠ100%.
And we give to DH and my undergrad alma maters, and to two from one of our kids (because we value what they are doing very much).
We donât do this for personal gain at all.
I wouldnât donate to a school that considers legacy. You can tell a schoolâs values by what it does. When a school admits legacies over regular applicants, it is because they value legacy families and their money more than regular families. So I figure the school has made their choice.
The only school I donate to is one that has almost open admissions. I figure country clubs donât need my money.
The universities I donate to do NOT have open admissions. But they have aggressive programs to fund kids from disadvantaged backgrounds- some of whom werenât even planning on attending a four year college.
I donât donate to my alma mater. I got a great education and Iâve got nothing but good things to say about them. But I donât donate to them. Nothing against them, I donât have an endless amount to donate and there are other causes that I donate to instead. I canât donate to everything.
As for legacy, I have mixed feelings. I donât think they should admit the child of an alumnus just because their parent attended that school. I think they need to be admitted on their own merit. If they donât have the grades to get admitted, than they donât get admitted, it doesnât matter if their parent attended that school.
For years, my husband donated to Stanford, (this was before we were married) with matching employer donation. We did see a lot of the âperksâ from the school. By this I mean the opportunities, that they gave us, to become involved in the organized community events, that were presented locally and statewide.
We saw how our donations were being used within the communities. We saw the supplies, the food, and everything that was donated and utilized to help the local communities.
We also attended alumni college nights presented only for Stanford legacies. My elder two daughters were not admitted, but we knew that because they prefaced us with a letter, before decisions were released. I donât think their hearts were into applying to Stanford. They did get into really good schools. Our children didnât expect to get in everywhere, but they got into schools where they were supposed to be.
Our son may have been legacy-admitted and was asked to write a letter. He had just finished his Eagle project and he said he didnât want another task added to his busy schedule. He had already gotten into Caltech and automatically to UCLA. So we donât know if it was because of legacy that they asked for a letter.
We no longer donate to Stanford, because my husbandâs company has gotten more complicated (cheap) about matching donations, but we still attend the events. The information that we received as a legacy family was very helpful. I still donate my âchump changeâ to San Diego State.
I donate to my own schools and those of my children (both their K-12 and their universities). For my own college though, I donât donate to the university as a whole. Instead, I target my donations to various individual parts of the university (e.g., student clubs, the dorm that I lived in as an undergraduate, some special programming aimed at specific populations). Over the years, Iâve probably donated to at least eight or ten sub-organizations within the university. It has never been out of the hope that my children would be admitted. Rather I really valued the school community in general and some of those activities and programming that happened at college when I was there. There were fantastic opportunities that I appreciated and donating is a way of giving back, particularly as someone who was on financial aid at the time. I hope that my targeted support makes continuing to fund those activities and clubs easier so future students can also participate.
I believe that my alma mater does not give legacies a bump, but if they did, it would not stop me from donating or make it less likely. I donât care much either way. If anything, I suppose that I lean towards thinking that small colleges and low endowment colleges.in particular can benefit from an alumni community not just monetarily but in a community building way. By building generations of families who feel loyal enough to the school that they do things like volunteer, attend games, participate in alumni events, come back to speak to and mentor current graduates, attend reunions and donate to financial aid funds. My own university is large enough that I am not sure that my participation or lack thereof in those events really makes a difference at all (especially given the relatively low sums that I send), and perhaps that is why I choose to do targeted donations instead of general ones. However, as a parent of kids in independent K-12 schools, I do think community building is a good goal. Thus it is not hard for me to imagine that it can also be useful for small colleges.
The first few years after graduation, I donated to our alma mater until one phone solicitation. They said the minimum donation was $500. My jaw hit the ground. In those days, $500 was a good amount for us to save for ourselves in an entire year. I thought I was doing well giving $25. Ticked me off and I said no more.
I do donate to my kidsâ universities - not a lot, as we still donât have a lot - but I like to show our appreciation. Both kids wound up in the right spot. Both got good merit scholarships and wound up with good jobs. Both matured and flourished. We are so thankful for the education and experience they received.
S1âs school is small enough that I just donate to the parents fund. S2 was in a niche/small major, so I donate directly to them.
In no way do I think that my teensy contributions would help any future generations of mine!
I donate to my high school, college and both grad schools because I am grateful for what they did to help me become me and get to where I am now. I also plan to give to my daughterâs Independent School because Iâm grateful for what it did for her in her formative years.
In none of these cases is there an expected quid pro quo. Obviously not for her Independent School. My daughter happens to attend my high school now, but I donât think my history of giving was meaningful enough to make a difference on her admission. But itâs meaningful to me. And if she didnât go to my high school and doesnât go to my college (which is highly doubtful), Iâll still make my little tithe each year.
Donor for 30 years, waitlistâŠ.now they get 0âŠâŠâŠâŠâŠ
My donations are never of a size that will affect college admissions. But I did a donation today to some targeted groups at my alma materâŠlikely some that the current university administration would prefer I not support (sadly, itâs been making some inane decisions of late).
Can you explain this a bit more? What does it mean to âwrite a letter.â About/for what?
This was at least 10-11 years ago. He had applied to Stanford and hadnât heard back. He received a request to write a letter/essay? I really donât remember what or why they were requesting more info. I think he emailed back, saying he was trying to focus on his senior studies. He was already leaning towards Caltech/UCLA.
Thanks.
Odd that they asked for an additional essay after the submission period.
My husband and I thought it was weird too. Thatâs why Iâve wondered if it was because our son was a legacy?
Our giving (3 institutions) was not made on the premise that it would help my kid get admission. However, when they didnât get into the school where two parents and two grandparents were alums, we stopped giving to that one. In many ways, it was less about the outcome and more about the process/communication.
Would you mind saying more about how they messed up the communication?
What could they have done that would have led you to continue contributing?
I donate equal amounts to my law school (no legacy pref) and my undergrad college. I also volunteer a lot of time for both. To me it is payback for how they both contributed to my life and professional career.