Legacy at HYPS

[Anonymous]

Is it detrimental for a HYPS legacy kid to apply RD vs. SCEA/REA to the HYPS school they have legacy? I have heard it is for the ED Ivies, but not sure about the non-binding restricted early action HYPS schools.

[Anonymous]

I am an HYPS alum and had heard from classmates that my kid should not bother applying RD because the college assumed you would only be applying to appease your family.
My kid applied RD and was rejected. 1600/IB/straight As/terrific ECs and recs.

Of course, that’s a data set of 1.

[Anonymous]

A friend's daughter applied RD to one of the HYPSM and got in. One alumni parent, magnet kid with perfect stats, great ECs, etc.

[Anonymous]

For Harvard you need to apply early to get any benefit from a legacy.

[Anonymous]

No legacy benefit without ED or REA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No legacy benefit without ED or REA.

No legacy benefit without $$$ or significant family interaction with the school (i.e. board / advisors / alumni groups).

Just having parents who graduated from that school means nothing today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A friend's daughter applied RD to one of the HYPSM and got in. One alumni parent, magnet kid with perfect stats, great ECs, etc.

Me again. This was for Yale, in case it matters. Alumni parent is not involved and has not donated significant money.

[Anonymous]

DC didn’t really want to go to Yale but we thought should apply early because of legacy. So they applied SCEA to Yale and got deferred then rejected, but in RD at Harvard and Princeton where they don’t have legacy. Sibling applied SCEA to Princeton, got deferred then rejected. But got into Yale RD (legacy). (Didn’t apply to Harvard) So not sure for Yale how they consider early vs regular for legacy applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an HYPS alum and had heard from classmates that my kid should not bother applying RD because the college assumed you would only be applying to appease your family.
My kid applied RD and was rejected. 1600/IB/straight As/terrific ECs and recs.

Of course, that’s a data set of 1.

Which HYPS was this, if you don’t mind sharing

[Anonymous]

It was Princeton.

[Anonymous]

It is usually advantageous to apply before RD if DC is legacy in most cases. No doubt at least a few exceptions and special cases exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was Princeton.

+1 (so not a dataset of 1, kid w similar stats)

[Anonymous]

My friend is alum of Princeton. Both of their kids applied Early and got deferred, but ultimately accepted. Not sure if they would’ve gotten the same result if applied RD.

[Anonymous]

Friend’s two legacy kids applied ED, deferred or waitlisted, I forget sequence. Both (different years) later accepted from waitlist. One lost deposit at SLAC and went, one stayed at other Ivy acceptance. Both (all that great stuff, for real) kids. It’s a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it detrimental for a HYPS legacy kid to apply RD vs. SCEA/REA to the HYPS school they have legacy? I have heard it is for the ED Ivies, but not sure about the non-binding restricted early action HYPS schools.

It's hard to discern any kind of pattern for HYPS these days. It seems like there's still a marginal benefit for a legacy to apply SCEA, but not much of one in the RD round. If the kid really wants to attend and it's a strong app, shoot your shot. But there's always an opportunity cost to applying SCEA/REA/ED. Game theory suggests strong applicants should apply elsewhere than HYPS to maximize chances of admittance to a highly selective school. Absolutely no one knows what HYPS is doing at the moment.

DS has double legacy at Stanford. But applied early elsewhere and got in. So I guess we'll never know.