Children of Stanford faculty members and large donors receive preference in the admissions process, even more than legacy students, former Stanford Admissions Officers Marci Reichelstein and Irena Smith told the Palo Alto Patch.

According to Reichelstein and Smith, these benefits allow faculty members to advocate for their children’s admission. Faculty can also threaten more serious measures by using their influence over important resources.

Reichelstein said that these advantages lead to an “X-factor” gap between admissions rates for normal applicants and children of faculty. According to the Palo Alto Patch article, Stanford spokesperson Lisa Lapin said Stanford does not track the specific admission rates of faculty’s children.

-Haelin Cho