<p>For what it’s worth, we have friends who are Harvard alums, the two of them. They were regularly involved with the University and were regular donors. They specifically told us that they had “upped” their donations in the “application anticipation years” so that ultimately they had given about $50K to Harvard by the time their kid applied, about half of that in the most recent years.</p>
<p>Their kid eventually attended a university (think “U Chicago” in terms of academics) so that tells me they were well qualified in terms of scores and grades, but their kid was still rejected by Harvard. And I quote them when they talked about having upped those recent donations, “we figured they were either the best donations we ever made, or the last.” It turned out to be the latter. But now, they’re off the hook for the rest of their lives. When those annual giving letters come … into the trash.</p>
<p>Interesting about the legacy “wait list” policy … I heard the kid applied EA and was deferred, then rejected.</p>