A family might donate a certain amount of money to the school over several years. Or maybe they've already donated in the past. Perhaps they built the university's library. All of these things can help, provided the student's grades and SAT scores meet the school's minimum standards, which in the Ivy League or at other competitive schools are usually quite high. As one consultant put it, "It can help a kid who is in the ballpark, but his grades must at least be as good as a football player." That said, if the family gave more than $1 million to the school and the child's father was an alumnus, even a B student might get in, experts say, though he should probably have taken some difficult courses, enabling him to show some promise.
Dunbar concurs. "You asked if I ever tried to influence admissions officers, and my answer was never, but I have always made sure development offices know about families that might not have emerged in their research," he says, noting he will make them aware of a family's wealth indirectly, through alumni.
Problems arise, though, if a family believes giving money will automatically result in acceptance. In fact, consultants say they know of instances in which wealthy families donated substantial sums to a school and yet their child was rejected anyway.
"There is no direct quid pro quo. However, often families hear something different than what university officials are saying," Goodman says.
Goodman says he would divide his wealthy clients into two categories: those who want the school to know about the family's wealth, and those who don't. The latter say they want their children to grow up as they did, with less money and privilege. They believe their children will be more motivated and will be treated more as peers at school than as oddities.
"There are a lot of families who do not want their children to be given special treatment," Goodman says.
In some instances, a family's wealth can actually work against the student. Admissions officials may view a child as privileged, having had the best access to tutors and private schools, with parents who are probably educated and big readers, and the schools will be comparing such children to those from lower-income families, who may not have had such advantages or books in the house. Consultants say a child from a family with a low income who has a B average might actually look stronger than a wealthy child with an A average.
Lynn Hamilton, an educational consultant in Santa Barbara, Calif., says she sometimes has to explain to the children of wealthy parents that focusing their essay and application on, say, their safari to Kenya or their trip to the Masai Mara may have been exciting, but it reeks of privilege, and some college admissions officers take a dimmer view of students who they believe have had it too easy.
"I say try to write about something your parents haven't bought you. Write about some community service. And so they'll write about when they went to Bali to do community service," Hamilton says. "I say to them, 'What have you given back and not just taken?' Because the colleges are going to ask the same thing."
Hamilton also warns her students about having their parents write their essays. For one thing, she says, the essays read way too smoothly, and it's obvious it's been written by someone else.