<p>I knew a similar situation with Boston College. The young lady did have SATs within the mid 50% range and excellent grades at a top school that did have a good number of kids accepted there each year. Her grandfather and some other relatives were deep pocket development alums. Yes, there is a building named for her grandfather and some fund also so named. The development department of the college welcomed her interest, encourage her application, and someone who personally knew granddad was in contact with the mom and her throughout the process.</p>
<p>BUT…she was NOT, strictly speaking a legacy. Yes, her grandfather and some other relatives, maybe a lot of relatives went to BC. But the definition of legacy was mother or father getting a bachelor’s degree from the school. Not grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, siblings. So she was not legacy. She was also, not, strictly speaking development. It doesn’t matter what was donated 50, 20 or even 10 years ago, unless there is a potential of future heavy duty contributions and donations. And in this case there was not. The faucet was turned off, grandpa was deceased. Though there was some involvement by the development folks there, particularly personal attention from an elderly person who knew the grandfather personally, there wasn’t much if any clout there. Definitely, she was in a “party of interest” category, as many, many kids who apply to colleges are, but that is not a category with much if any punch, particularly at highly selective schools.</p>
<p>Looking at her very competitive all girls Catholic school naviance reports, she was outside of the circle of acceptance. Not far outside of it, but outside of it. Her grades put her in the top 20% of the class when the top 10% was pretty much needed for acceptance with half the kids in the top 15% getting accepted. Her SAT scores were within BC’s mid 50% range, but for kids accepted from her Catholic high school and really from any of the Catholic feeder schools to BC, her stats were bordering the lower 25%.maybe in there. The fact of the matter is that here in our area, the Catholic counselors know pretty well who is a good BC candidate from their schools and who is not. That she had some “pull”, possible legacy and development connections made it so that the GC felt it was worth a try, but without some oomph behind those special categories, it was not going to be enough, and the oomph was not there. Without that “pull” BC would have been an unlikely college for her. The super lottery ticket.</p>
<p>She did not get accepted. Big disappointment. A few years later, little brother applied from a boys’ Catholic prep school. Grades not as high, but difficult subjects, very, very high SATS, like in the high 2200, low 2300 range. He was accepted without going through any of the personal contacts. My friend was so embarrassed from the fiasco of her daughter’s application a couple of years earlier, that she did not make a big deal of son’s application and made no effort to contact any alums or development folks. Just another app in the bunch and this school has about 50-60 kids applying to BC each year with about 20-25 accepted and less than half of them actually attending. Son was one of those accepted his year, but he turned them down, preferring Holy Cross and Colgate. ending up at one of those schools. </p>
<p>Had the girl been right at the edge of the accepted line of those who historically get into that school from hers, she would have probably been accepted. She was not, so she was not. The young man was within the circle, and he was accepted with no special connection needed. </p>
<p>Around here, there are ever, ever so many people connected to someone at a college. They know someone important, had a relative give lots of money, worked at the college, have a close dear friend, godmother, business partner with an in. I think the most select schools could fill their classes with the “other” connected category, and are therefore selective in making the determination as to who fits into the legacy and development categories. The “friends of” category is not a strong hook at all.</p>
<p>There are kids I know from one of my kids school with mid 1300 SATS (out of 1600) and solid B, B+ averages who were accepted to Cornell’s Hotel School. I saw them clearly on their college info notebook. No special factors listed. However, my son who applied in that category as his first choice (there were two choices of schools on the Cornell app) was immediately rejected. The first rejection of his class that year since it was on a rolling basis. He did get accepted in the spring at the second choice school which is supposed to be far more selective, stat wise, so go figure.</p>