KU Admission Change

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

I'm not a sharp guy. Hopefully someone will help me with my 3 questions.
Do most schools get more money from donations or student tuition?
If a school lowers their admission standards, is one to assume they are "hurting" for money?
I happen to know that some (if not many/most) schools want letters of recommendation.
If they simply said, "We need a letter of recommendation" - would a kid who submits many letters of recommendation from multiple teachers and the principal of their High School have a better or worse chance of being admitted than a kid with the same exact test scores and grades who submits a single letter of recommendation from a good family friend who happens to be a large donor to the college/university? I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one but of course I'm not the admission officer who ultimately determines if the kid gets in or not.

A friend of mine was the associate Dean for the School of Civil Engineering at KU for years. We discussed admissions many times over. I don't know for sure but I think much of the money comes from donations.

With regards to numbers enrolled, no school wants to have their numbers drop. It translates to questions from the Board of regents about whether or not they need to drop programs or staff. The optimal situation is for the program like Arch E where they have 2x-3x as many applicants as they have spots for incoming students. Everyone's job and funding is secure.

A decade ago they didn't spend more than a second looking at high school GPAs in engineering school. Everyone had a 4.0 or even 4.5 on a 4 point scale. They went solely by standard test scores because that leveled the playing field to some extent and took parents out fo the equation. Parents spend a lot of time at high schools trying to influence grades. Now they sort them out by telling the prospective student they should set up and appointment with the associate dean and come talk to them for an hour and meet a professor, watch a class laboratory in session. When my daughter applied several years back we went over to Lawrence and spent the afternoon watching an acoustics class take data readings of sound at Murphy Hall and then talked to the professor for 30 minutes and then went to the dean's office and spent 45 minutes talking to the associate dean. When other peoples kids have expressed an interest in engineering school regardless of the college I have advised them to do the same and help them with the application process. My neighbors son is enrolled at KSU Engineering School now.As the associate dean told me, we pick up the applications and read the names and if we remember that person from a meeting or a conversation it gets them a big step up. They showed initiative in finding out more about the school and we think that translates to them being more successful once they get here. They were serious enough to come talk to us.

I was also on the Alumni Advisory Board for the School of Engineering for years and yeah that helped my daughter get in. The associate dean knew her name by association. My youngest went to the School of Music, no one there has any clue who I am. She went through the same process and as part of her interview she played a saxophone solo in front of the Dean. Her primary instrument was the clarinet. About a week later she and I were at KU watching her older sister play in the orchestra and ran into the dean of the Music School in the lobby of The Lied Center. He stopped us and said, "hey I know you, you were the saxophone player who studied with Bobby Watson!". My daughter got a huge grin on her face, "yeah that was me". She made an impression all on her own. The big thing is get to get some face time and make a positive impression. She got her acceptance letter soon after. Having a parent that the associate dean or dean recognizes is good, but having them recognize the prospective student's name is even better.

If the applicant wants to add a letter of recommendation, the most important letter is to get one from someone who works in the field of the school. If students want to go to KU Eng they can find my resume on our company website, see I am a KU grad, and ask if they can come to our office and get a tour and ask what an engineer does. We will give them a short tour and they can see projects in the works and afterwards if they ask I will write them a letter of recommendation. If you have a child looking to get into college, this gets their application to the front of the line in a competitive admissions process.

40 years ago when I applied I just sent my SAT scores and said, "check it out, pick me bitch!". I got lucky.

Thanks Japhy! That was a detailed, informative, respectful, response - and I liked the story about your daughter!

[pdub]

Eventually, we'll write a standardized program ( simple entry and Augmented Reality interactions ) that'll be able to determine how qualified our children are for college/next education steps for most majors.

Fucked up - but I think viable.