<p>How much would this help in the admissions process? Does having family members on the School Board for Ivy League schools help my chances?</p>
<p>I guess it depends on how honest dishonest you and your relative choose to be, no? Ethically, he/she needs to recuse himself/herself from reading your and even your region’s files. Otherwise you can conspire and he/she can risk a career to help you out but given that the decisions are made by committee, you can’t be plowed through anyway.</p>
<p>If you’re not qualified, I hope you get fully rejected.</p>
<p>By the way, it’s called the Admissions committee, not the “school board”</p>
<p>^ that’s harsh, but true nonetheless…however, i think having a family member in the admission committee is a huge leg-up…there’s a Dartmouth class of 2014 thread where a person writes one of her hooks as “dating the dean of admission’s son”…and she got accepted…so i think having a family there will matter a great deal (universities do sometimes ask in application forms whether the applicant has a parent(s) working in the school…probably to indicate student that should receive preferential treatment)…well if you get accepted, i just hope that you’re not one of those people who sleeps halfway through the SATs and bomb their AP test…at least try your best to gain admission as if you’re not getting a family member’s help…and consider their help one of the many positive factors that the admission committees look upon.</p>
<p>Anyone on the board of trustees of an ivy is extremely influential-highly ssuccessful in business or something else, extremely wealthy, etc. They have generally given a lot of money to the school or are in a position to. All of these things mean they have power at the school. If they support your application and you have the minimum qualificcations, chances are you’ll get in.</p>
<p>They can only do this a few times though, not for every distant family member or casual friend. Just mention of them or a ‘letter’ will not get you in. They must choose to go to bat for you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not only that, they’re probably wealthy. If this is a parent, they probably have you attending prestigious feeder schools since pre-school and have a little platoon of test prep experts working with the student on SAT and ACTs. There are so many advantages that you can get from this without doing anything even slightly dishonest or unethical, if this person is a parent.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I understand the difference between the school board and admissions. I have relationships with people in different positions. One of which has been involved wig the school for decades. I am merely asking whether or not I should consider the schools (ivies) if my gpa is about 2 points below their average from my school. My sats and ec’s are probably the norm for those schools.</p>
<p>Ask these people, they should be honest about whether or not they can get you in.</p>
<p>I know two people on the board of trustees at a top 10 LAC that is a drool-school here on CC. They aren’t wealthy or powerful – they are just comfortable upper middle class six figures. Done well for themselves, yes. Titans of industry? No. One is a Harvard MBA who turned at-home mom.</p>