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Do you know of or have you heard of any case where being tagged by a large donor worked against an applicant?
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I know of one case, but it was a few years back (2019) right at the height of the Varsity Blues scandal. The child of a large donor was not admitted to a Top 20 and they received a phone call explaining that although the student was generally well-qualified they were not at or near the top of the list of applicants from their school. They said that because of the then-recent scandal the school was extremely strict about admitting students based on the holistic “applicant score” they created for them and would not be able to admit the student. They offered a guaranteed sophomore transfer. In any case, that was for the child of a huge donor. And, honestly, the right outcome prevailed. In the case of OP the connection is much weaker and unlikely to make a big difference, if any. However, I think all applicants can and should do whatever they can to get noticed in the pile of 50K+ applications.