bush had his foot in his mouth the entire presidency but he is also known for being extremely personable and friendly in person!http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/opinion/yang-harvard-lawsuit/
This is one of the articles that was centered around a lawsuit about racial profiling in college applications. Although it is just an opinion article, I believe that the author has enough credibility to convince me of such a situation existing.
As for all of you current college applicants, here's a New York Times article that breaks down the acceptance rate illusion for colleges. It's a good read, and I'd highly suggest you all give it a look.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/u...ng-a-top-college-isnt-actually-that-hard.html
However, that doesn't mean that there are people who pay their way into college. I remember reading an article written by a former college adviser who was paid $20,000 a session to help write and prepare the applications of high school seniors from high-income families, and thus into the "money game" side of college. One of her personal stories chronicles her experience working with this girl applying to Yale. She attended a private school but had a GPA of around 2.9 to 3.0 (which is way below Yale's non-athletic standards). However, her parents were very big donors to Yale, and thus she had a very high chance of getting in despite her grades. After hiring a college counselor to help craft her essay, she was eventually admitted early decision. I tried finding this article again today but am coming up with negatives, so if anyone here is familiar with the story and has the link to it, please post the URL here. It's also a great read.
Arguably, one of the biggest examples of college legacy is the Bush family. We all recognize the younger Bush as a sort-of bumbling fool who is well known for his somewhat poor public speaking skills. Despite not being anywhere near qualified for Yale, he was still admitted into Yale via family legacy since the older Bush was an alumnus.
If anyone's going to question me on the younger Bush's academics, many news sources have his SAT numbers floating around. Although the numbers vary slightly from source to source, they all illustrate the same notion that Bush's SAT 1600 scores were significantly lower than the average Yale applicant. Although these numbers tend to pop up more on liberal news sources, a number of traditionally conservative news sources, such as Forbes and BusinessInsider, all bring up Bush's SAT scores.
Hope this does give you applicants something to think about. Much like competitive battling, the more information you know about the game of college admissions, the better off you are in preparing for your college application game plan.
EDIT: It is to note that just because your parent(s) is a/are graduates of a certain university does not mean that you'll get in easily. Remember, 150% of zero is still zero, so if a legacy applicant is completely unqualified to apply, his or her application will still be thrown out and be denied admission.
if I redid college applications, campus culture and lifestyle would play a main role in my choice. physically, where is the campus located? do you like easy quick access to cities, or would you prefer to be secluded an hour or two from metropolitan areas? what's the climate like (seriously)? is the student body conservative? liberal? socially active? racially and economically diverse? what role does greek life play? what about sports? how is the dorm system setup? are there close-knit residential colleges/houses, or is it every man for himself? do RAs act as hall monitors, or confidants? what percentage of upperclassmen live in university-sponsored housing? do you want a broad liberal arts education with core requirements or do you want to dive into specialized classes right away? how sympathetic is the administration to student affairs?
you hear that where you go for undergrad doesn't have a huge impact academically, and it sounds like a trite and overused attempt to sooth your nerves, but I feel that it is largely true. the exception would be if there is a very specific program or scholarship you're pursuing. otherwise, how well you fit into the school might have a greater impact on your overall satisfaction with college.