List of Legacy and Non-Legacy Competitive Schools

[Anonymous]

I know OP likely does not have the time or interest, but would also be very helpful to see it broken down by considers graduate students as legacies vs only considers undergrads.

How would one go about finding this information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know OP likely does not have the time or interest, but would also be very helpful to see it broken down by considers graduate students as legacies vs only considers undergrads.

How would one go about finding this information?

The alumni office at your alma mater can answer this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know OP likely does not have the time or interest, but would also be very helpful to see it broken down by considers graduate students as legacies vs only considers undergrads.

How would one go about finding this information?

As a general rule, undergraduate admissions offices will be primarily interested if your parents went there for their undergraduate degrees. If your parents instead got professional degrees and not their undergraduate degrees from the school, it's less likely you'd be counted as a legacy during the undergraduate admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Safe to assume that graduate school does not factor in at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know OP likely does not have the time or interest, but would also be very helpful to see it broken down by considers graduate students as legacies vs only considers undergrads.

How would one go about finding this information?

As a general rule, undergraduate admissions offices will be primarily interested if your parents went there for their undergraduate degrees. If your parents instead got professional degrees and not their undergraduate degrees from the school, it's less likely you'd be counted as a legacy during the undergraduate admissions process.

What is it was for an academic degree (ie Chemistry) vs professional degree (medical school)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Came across an article in the Chronicle, "Which Colleges Consider Legacies in Their Admissions? Not Just the Ones You're Thinking" published 12/12/23 with data from the US Department of Education. I was curious who was on the list and who was not. It may not be the most up to date as I think some schools have announced changes recently, such as Wesleyan. For the non-legacy schools I looked at those listed in USNWR. These are schools with acceptance rates under 30% minus a few specialty schools. Order is most selective schools on top.

Schools that consider legacy (admit rate less than 30%):
Harvard University
Columbia University
Stanford University
Brown University
University of Chicago
Yale University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Princeton University
Cornell University
Northwestern University
Swarthmore College
University of Pennsylvania
Vanderbilt University
Colby College
Williams College
Barnard College
Bowdoin College
Rice University
Claremont McKenna College
Tufts University
Emory University
Grinnell College
Tulane University
Colgate University
Georgetown University
Hamilton College (N.Y.)
University of Southern California
Harvey Mudd College
Middlebury College
University of Notre Dame
Bates College
Boston University
Haverford College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University (Conn.)
Colorado College
Boston College
Carleton College
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Washington and Lee University
Pitzer College
University of Miami
University of Virginia
Vassar College
Wake Forest University
Babson College
Denison University
Smith College
Villanova University
University of Richmond
Skidmore College
University of Tampa
Case Western Reserve University
Spelman College

Schools that do not consider legacy (admit rate less than 30%):
CalTech
MIT
Amherst College
Johns Hopking
Northeastern
Pomona College
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon
Berkeley
U.S. Naval Academy
Washington University in St. Louis
New York University
West Point
Air Force Academy
Davidson College
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan
Hillsdale College
UC Irvine
University of Florida
UC San Diego
Berea College
Florida State
UC Santa Barbara
Macalester
Scripps

Boston university (BU) does not use legacy status in admissions decisions anymore.

https://dailyfreepress.com/2023/10/27/stugov-shares-bu-does-not-use-legacy-status-in-admissions-decisions/

[Anonymous]

Duke absolutely considers graduate school in undergrad admissions during the ED round. I would not make any assumptions on this matter -- talk to the alumni office or undergrad admissions.

[Anonymous]

Does legacy = alumni parents only? (So no boost for siblings, grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown is so heavily legacy, they could fill the entire class with them. The only admits EA were legacy from our school.

Georgetown’s class is only 9% legacies.

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that all things considered the legacy schools are a stronger list than the non legacy ones. In your face, legacy haters.