<p>Yes, it is an advantage, as is being a child of a staff member. Believe me a janitor’s child who has the stats to get in will get a boost. And I don’t begrudge it a moment, especially given the numbers. H and I have a number of faculty/staff friends since he was in academia for so many years. And though, yes, they may get an edge in admissions, I just don’t see it as a “hook” such as athletics, URM or even legacy, perhaps because the pool of such kids is so much smaller. But because many schools do offer some sort of a tuition remission, it often pays for faculty children to go where their parent works. I saw this a lot at Pitt, but every one of those kids that I knew were easily admits even without the faculty connection. For CMU, it may have been a different story, but I also knew kids who did not get in with the parent as faculty. My friend who is a prof at Fordham did not get his borderline son into the school. Another who is a prof at Cornell did not get his daughter who was well within the accept paramenter in the school.</p>