Where are the top unhooked kids at your Big3 going this year (not legacy, URM or sports recruit).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

My experience at a top DC independent school is that in a class of 100 kids, there are easily 10-20 kids with legacy status (between both parents) at each Ivy. There are a LOT of Ivy grads walking around DC.
Then maybe 1/10 of these kids will get into the Ivy. So while a legacy kid may get into Yale from Sidwell, there are 9 other Yale legacies from Sidwell who applied and didn't get in.
There is no way that Yale is taking 10 kids from Sidwell. Plus there are the athletic recruits, URMs, non-legacy kids who are superstars in their own right, etc who are also taking spots.
Make sense?

The legacy bump is stronger at other high schools or other parts of the country where kids aren't competing against 10 other legacies in their class.

considering there are 8 schools in question, you're essentially saying that easily over 50% of the class is some Ivy legacy? That's so far off the mark.

My kids attend a top private school in another major city that is similar in reputation to Sidwell, and yes, around 40-50% of their classes are Ivy + Stanford legacies, in many cases double legacies (both parents went to the same Ivy).

If you consider the fact that double Ivy parents might produce some seriously smart kids, the hook doesn’t come from where mom and dad went to school previously but the brain power they passed along. This is all the more true if mom and dad were unhooked themselves. Valedictorian from high school 1 meets valedictorian from high school 2 and they have kids? Likely not going to be dumb.

This is a massive oversimplification - to the point of unhelpful
- of genetics, child rearing and the admissions process itself.

Perhaps but it’s so often NOT considered by those that lazily throw out the notion of “hooked” kids. Not all hooks are the same and this isn’t 1960 anymore where G.Bush pulls gentleman Cs and still gets into Yale. There actually was progress from the 1970’s on. So, go after the oversimplifications on all sides, not just some of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

My experience at a top DC independent school is that in a class of 100 kids, there are easily 10-20 kids with legacy status (between both parents) at each Ivy. There are a LOT of Ivy grads walking around DC.
Then maybe 1/10 of these kids will get into the Ivy. So while a legacy kid may get into Yale from Sidwell, there are 9 other Yale legacies from Sidwell who applied and didn't get in.
There is no way that Yale is taking 10 kids from Sidwell. Plus there are the athletic recruits, URMs, non-legacy kids who are superstars in their own right, etc who are also taking spots.
Make sense?

The legacy bump is stronger at other high schools or other parts of the country where kids aren't competing against 10 other legacies in their class.

considering there are 8 schools in question, you're essentially saying that easily over 50% of the class is some Ivy legacy? That's so far off the mark.

My kids attend a top private school in another major city that is similar in reputation to Sidwell, and yes, around 40-50% of their classes are Ivy + Stanford legacies, in many cases double legacies (both parents went to the same Ivy).

If you consider the fact that double Ivy parents might produce some seriously smart kids, the hook doesn’t come from where mom and dad went to school previously but the brain power they passed along. This is all the more true if mom and dad were unhooked themselves. Valedictorian from high school 1 meets valedictorian from high school 2 and they have kids? Likely not going to be dumb.

Fabulous. Let them gain admission with their outrageously large brains alone, not their parents’ connections.

Many do. Stop complaining about them. Their parents are not that well connected anyway. Go after the ones that are instead and stop putting all kids with alum parents in the same bucket. That is a gross oversimplification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

My experience at a top DC independent school is that in a class of 100 kids, there are easily 10-20 kids with legacy status (between both parents) at each Ivy. There are a LOT of Ivy grads walking around DC.
Then maybe 1/10 of these kids will get into the Ivy. So while a legacy kid may get into Yale from Sidwell, there are 9 other Yale legacies from Sidwell who applied and didn't get in.
There is no way that Yale is taking 10 kids from Sidwell. Plus there are the athletic recruits, URMs, non-legacy kids who are superstars in their own right, etc who are also taking spots.
Make sense?

The legacy bump is stronger at other high schools or other parts of the country where kids aren't competing against 10 other legacies in their class.

considering there are 8 schools in question, you're essentially saying that easily over 50% of the class is some Ivy legacy? That's so far off the mark.

My kids attend a top private school in another major city that is similar in reputation to Sidwell, and yes, around 40-50% of their classes are Ivy + Stanford legacies, in many cases double legacies (both parents went to the same Ivy).

If you consider the fact that double Ivy parents might produce some seriously smart kids, the hook doesn’t come from where mom and dad went to school previously but the brain power they passed along. This is all the more true if mom and dad were unhooked themselves. Valedictorian from high school 1 meets valedictorian from high school 2 and they have kids? Likely not going to be dumb.

Fabulous. Let them gain admission with their outrageously large brains alone, not their parents’ connections.

Many do. Stop complaining about them. Their parents are not that well connected anyway. Go after the ones that are instead and stop putting all kids with alum parents in the same bucket. That is a gross oversimplification.

JD Vance, his wife and kids are in a different category than the Trumps who are in a different category than the Bush’s. I could go on. And, I picked annoying Rs just bc as it doesn’t matter. Frankly, if AOC and her fiancée have kids they won’t be in the same place as the Clintons (taking out the presidential thing) who in turn are not hooked like any Kennedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

My experience at a top DC independent school is that in a class of 100 kids, there are easily 10-20 kids with legacy status (between both parents) at each Ivy. There are a LOT of Ivy grads walking around DC.
Then maybe 1/10 of these kids will get into the Ivy. So while a legacy kid may get into Yale from Sidwell, there are 9 other Yale legacies from Sidwell who applied and didn't get in.
There is no way that Yale is taking 10 kids from Sidwell. Plus there are the athletic recruits, URMs, non-legacy kids who are superstars in their own right, etc who are also taking spots.
Make sense?

The legacy bump is stronger at other high schools or other parts of the country where kids aren't competing against 10 other legacies in their class.

considering there are 8 schools in question, you're essentially saying that easily over 50% of the class is some Ivy legacy? That's so far off the mark.

My kids attend a top private school in another major city that is similar in reputation to Sidwell, and yes, around 40-50% of their classes are Ivy + Stanford legacies, in many cases double legacies (both parents went to the same Ivy).

If you consider the fact that double Ivy parents might produce some seriously smart kids, the hook doesn’t come from where mom and dad went to school previously but the brain power they passed along. This is all the more true if mom and dad were unhooked themselves. Valedictorian from high school 1 meets valedictorian from high school 2 and they have kids? Likely not going to be dumb.

Fabulous. Let them gain admission with their outrageously large brains alone, not their parents’ connections.

Many do. Stop complaining about them. Their parents are not that well connected anyway. Go after the ones that are instead and stop putting all kids with alum parents in the same bucket. That is a gross oversimplification.

Their parents are connected to the school as alumni. That puts them in a separate bucket of applicants who don’t have to be as good as the applicants who aren’t in any bucket. That’s what legacy means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

My experience at a top DC independent school is that in a class of 100 kids, there are easily 10-20 kids with legacy status (between both parents) at each Ivy. There are a LOT of Ivy grads walking around DC.
Then maybe 1/10 of these kids will get into the Ivy. So while a legacy kid may get into Yale from Sidwell, there are 9 other Yale legacies from Sidwell who applied and didn't get in.
There is no way that Yale is taking 10 kids from Sidwell. Plus there are the athletic recruits, URMs, non-legacy kids who are superstars in their own right, etc who are also taking spots.
Make sense?

The legacy bump is stronger at other high schools or other parts of the country where kids aren't competing against 10 other legacies in their class.

considering there are 8 schools in question, you're essentially saying that easily over 50% of the class is some Ivy legacy? That's so far off the mark.

My kids attend a top private school in another major city that is similar in reputation to Sidwell, and yes, around 40-50% of their classes are Ivy + Stanford legacies, in many cases double legacies (both parents went to the same Ivy).

If you consider the fact that double Ivy parents might produce some seriously smart kids, the hook doesn’t come from where mom and dad went to school previously but the brain power they passed along. This is all the more true if mom and dad were unhooked themselves. Valedictorian from high school 1 meets valedictorian from high school 2 and they have kids? Likely not going to be dumb.

Fabulous. Let them gain admission with their outrageously large brains alone, not their parents’ connections.

Many do. Stop complaining about them. Their parents are not that well connected anyway. Go after the ones that are instead and stop putting all kids with alum parents in the same bucket. That is a gross oversimplification.

Their parents are connected to the school as alumni. That puts them in a separate bucket of applicants who don’t have to be as good as the applicants who aren’t in any bucket. That’s what legacy means.

Exactly. Money/fame/connections are their own bucket.

[Anonymous]

Legacies offer more donation potential to the school. Whether you like it or not, that has value.