<p>Being a faculty child helps. By the time faculty kids are applying, their parents are usually tenured. If they are tenured at an ivy, they are faculty that the U wants to keep - and keep happy. They are of the caliber that other schools would often hop at the chance to get them. If a faculty kid is turned down, a huge wrinkle may arise in the relationship between the faculty member and the U. </p>
<p>We have a friend whose son was admitted ED to the ivy where his dad teaches. Said dad - a scientist - routinely gets other offers, and if he left, he would take lots of grant money with him. The faculty kid was indeed qualified - but probably no more so than many other BWRKs who applied too. We were not surprised that he got in. But no one assumed he was a shoe-in. We realized it could go either way, though we knew the odds were in his favor. His best friend - another faculty kid who was not the child of a scientist - got in too.</p>