(03-16-2019 09:13 AM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  

(03-16-2019 08:09 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  My son followed his mom and me to Rice, and we were very happy about that, and also about what he has accomplished since then.

He would very likely have gotten in anyway on his merits, but we probably did grease the skids a bit. We certainly never resorted to anything even remotely approaching any of this stuff. We travelled a lot with Rice sports teams, primarily because we supported athletics financially, and often there were a lot of administrative staff along on the trips, frequently including the director of admissions. So my son got to know him pretty well. I have no idea ow much, if any, that influenced the admissions decision.

He was quite ready to go to TexasU, and the plans were to buy a house in Austin over the summer, let 3 or 4 of his friends be rent-paying roommates, and sell the house for a profit upon graduation. But he attended what I think was called Owl Weekend, basically a welcome aboard weekend in the spring for incoming fall freshmen, and came home firmly set on going to Rice. The only thing that he ever talked about was how much fun he had playing something called "tennis-golf." When we asked him how to play it, he started with, "First you need two cases of beer and a shopping cart," and we really didn't pay much attention after that. His buddies that had been counting on him for a place to live had to do a bunch of scrambling to make other arrangements, but that worked out okay in the end. A couple of the buddies actually got caught up in the Austin/TexasU social scene and flunked out, so we were quite happy he ended up at Rice.

His being a double Rice Legacy probably helped more than anything else. I helps to be a Legacy at any school with very competitive admissions. It's worth "points" during app scoring.

He did have to meet the mins to qualify to get in though and kudos to him for making the grade.

Public schools are tending to do away with any advantage for legacies.

We haven't hesitated to introduce our kids to deans. But the admissions office is walled off from the schools in a lot of places. People at the Ag school at UGA have said they have good students they want, but can't get admitted.

(03-16-2019 09:15 AM)swagsurfer11 Wrote:  

(03-16-2019 09:13 AM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  

(03-16-2019 08:09 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  My son followed his mom and me to Rice, and we were very happy about that, and also about what he has accomplished since then.

He would very likely have gotten in anyway on his merits, but we probably did grease the skids a bit. We certainly never resorted to anything even remotely approaching any of this stuff. We travelled a lot with Rice sports teams, primarily because we supported athletics financially, and often there were a lot of administrative staff along on the trips, frequently including the director of admissions. So my son got to know him pretty well. I have no idea ow much, if any, that influenced the admissions decision.

He was quite ready to go to TexasU, and the plans were to buy a house in Austin over the summer, let 3 or 4 of his friends be rent-paying roommates, and sell the house for a profit upon graduation. But he attended what I think was called Owl Weekend, basically a welcome aboard weekend in the spring for incoming fall freshmen, and came home firmly set on going to Rice. The only thing that he ever talked about was how much fun he had playing something called "tennis-golf." When we asked him how to play it, he started with, "First you need two cases of beer and a shopping cart," and we really didn't pay much attention after that. His buddies that had been counting on him for a place to live had to do a bunch of scrambling to make other arrangements, but that worked out okay in the end. A couple of the buddies actually got caught up in the Austin/TexasU social scene and flunked out, so we were quite happy he ended up at Rice.

His being a double Rice Legacy probably helped more than anything else. I helps to be a Legacy at any school with very competitive admissions. It's worth "points" during app scoring.

He did have to meet the mins to qualify to get in though and kudos to him for making the grade.

Another version of Affirmative action

Only sort of like AA.
Legacy gives you extra points on your app score but the applicant still has to meet the minimums to qualify for the school (which at elite schools are very high). Legacy points are similar to the points awarded if you are a college level athlete, a youth entrepreneur, a military veteran, disabled, etc.

It's no shock that Malia Obama is at Harvard. She had double legacy there.

Joe Montana and Phil Mickelson are clients that was brought out in this whole scandal, but they were not charged.

https://outline.com/KeK9jt
Harvard professor:

"When I moved from Oxford to Harvard, I was puzzled. My reading of mid-term exam papers suggested that a substantial proportion of my new students wouldn’t have got an interview at Oxford, never mind a place. It was explained to me that a substantial chunk of undergraduates were “legacies” – there because their parents were alumni, especially generous alumni – and another chunk were the beneficiaries of affirmative action or athletics programs. The admissions system was managed by professional administrators, not professors.

I soon learned how to deter the academically weaker brethren. By assigning a lot of reading and awarding some C grades, I was soon rid of them...."