legacy admissions at competitive colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming your child is clearly in the admit pool - top test scores, strong transcript, etc. - AND your child applies early decision, then legacy will make a difference. Admission officers do not look up donation records. If a family is a development case, then the fundraising group will notify the admissions office. But, admissions officers know alumni who do interviews and its always harder to deny a child of someone you know, even if the parent recuses herself that year.

Don't colleges that do alumni interviews REQUIRE alumni interviewers to step aside the year that a family member is applying to the school? Even if the interviewer isn't interviewing at a son's or daughter's high school, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest in interviewing others who are applying from the area that year.

Yes, they all require you to take a year off when your own child is applying. That's what I meant by recuse. But if you've been doing interviews for a while, the admissions officer gets to know your write-ups and you've spoken to each other, covered college fairs for them, exchanges emails, etc. then they know you in a way that they don't know the hundreds of other applications they read every year. Obviously, if you've been a complete bozo and the admissions officer thinks you're a terrible representative for the college, then good luck to your DC. It's only human nature that favorable impressions carry over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In other words, call the schools you attended to ask this question directly because people on the internet will make the answer up when you ask them this question.

Right, because the admissions office would be totally forthcoming.

The admissions officers probably don't want random people posting incorrect information online as if it is fact, so yes, they will tell you if legacy is important and how it impacts applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In other words, call the schools you attended to ask this question directly because people on the internet will make the answer up when you ask them this question.

Right, because the admissions office would be totally forthcoming.

The admissions officers probably don't want random people posting incorrect information online as if it is fact, so yes, they will tell you if legacy is important and how it impacts applications.

No, I think they would give a diplomatically-worded non answer which would say that legacy status is "one factor." That's why I posted this question.