How does legacy admission really work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They say there is no connection between the development office and the admissions office (but top top donors are in a different category, I suppose). Development officers aren't supposed to ask for donations from alum whose kids are in the current application cycle (heard this directly from ours). I'm not sure how it really works. We've had family members get in with legacy and also rejected with legacy.

Some colleges have a development officer sit in admissions. It’s important to know which schools those are. Ask your schools college counseling team.

Not so at our HYP. Dev office and admissions are completely separate. Would you really ask your school counseling team? I would feel silly since we’re not mega donors. DC was accepted. We’re just not al donors.

I know for a fact, it is true at two T10 schools.

If you have a private college counselor, I would ask them. Why are you posting if you don’t need the help for the next cycle?

We don't have a private college counselor, and we have younger ones coming up and nieces/nephews too, and so I am interested in this discussion. That's great that yo know for a fact at two T10 schools. I am just speaking from our experience and a network of alum friends with kids applying to our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You go to your 25th reunion where you are wined-and-dined and they start the not-so-subtle fundraising pressure, knowing that you're likely to have DCs who are old enough that you're thinking ahead to college, but young enough that they aren't in the window of the admissions cycle. You may also start to get lots of friendly texts and emails from development people who want to meet you for coffee or whatever on their planned visit to your city. You engage these people politely, perhaps donate more than you'd otherwise consider donating, and hope for the best when your DC applies (if they apply . . . both of ours chose to apply ED to schools that weren't either of our alma maters).

My DC was accepted early to my T5 alma mater the same year I chaired my 25th reunion (didn’t feel like I should decline when offered the position, lol). I only donated $100 though, as per usual.

At some schools chairing the reunion and being that involved as an alum is actually more valuable than $100,000 donation. Some top schools track that type of involvement heavily.

One of my classmates was similarly involved. I'm an HYP grad. I don't know if she donated but I'm guessing she did. Her kid was admitted.

[Anonymous]

It varies by school and by student. Generally speaking it's a differentiator, i.e. if there's a decision between two equally strong kids the nod will go to the legacy kid. It generally does not allow "weaker" legacy kids to be admitted unless those legacy kids are also significant donors or prospects.

[Anonymous]

What do the college apps ask for? Do you list where each parent and grandparent went to college, grad school, etc.?

[Anonymous]

I hope it doesn't matter if you're not active. I'm an alum but have never gone to reunion, am not a big donor, and graduated with a sub-3.0 GPA. Honestly don't know whether to list my school on DS's application or not!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do the college apps ask for? Do you list where each parent and grandparent went to college, grad school, etc.?

Varies by school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard that at some places legacy is most valuable if your child applies ED. I've even heard that if your child is a legacy it can be a negative if they don't apply ED and their chances in RD go down, though I'm not sure about that. And I think this all varies a lot from school to school.

And some schools like siblings.

ED didn’t work for my kid. Deferred, then rejected. Sibling was in. Kids had absolutely identical top stats, great essays/recs/ecs.

It’s not a guarantee. We know a lot of kids with parent legacies that did not help (past few cycles; qualified kids too).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope it doesn't matter if you're not active. I'm an alum but have never gone to reunion, am not a big donor, and graduated with a sub-3.0 GPA. Honestly don't know whether to list my school on DS's application or not!

HYP grad here, similar low GPA, spotty low dollar donations though I have gone back for reunions. I honestly thought my legacy status would hurt my kids chances, but 1580, high GPA, but no other hook like sports), and was admitted. So don’t stress about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it doesn't matter if you're not active. I'm an alum but have never gone to reunion, am not a big donor, and graduated with a sub-3.0 GPA. Honestly don't know whether to list my school on DS's application or not!

HYP grad here, similar low GPA, spotty low dollar donations though I have gone back for reunions. I honestly thought my legacy status would hurt my kids chances, but 1580, high GPA, but no other hook like sports), and was admitted. So don’t stress about it.

Another Harvard grad here. Legacy most certainly counts for parents who give seven digits. We know that from the SCOTUS case - 30% of the admittees are legacy but they all have the stats that Harvard wants. Harvard has to cull through all of the legacies and it picks those who have the stats, the character they want and obliging parents. But the legacy varies by school. UVA, for example, no longer looks at legacies so Google before you assume. Yale and Princeton still favor high donation legacy kids

[Anonymous]

For my HYP, if you are the chair for your area’s alumni interview committee, your kid has a pretty good chance, but assuming that they are qualified on their own (just a tiebreaker among all the other qualified applicants that don’t get in)

[Anonymous]

I went to school 20 years ago and am a 3x Cornell Alum legacy (multiple people in multiple generations). In our group of cousins 3 of us were competitive (all of us now have PhDs) and I was the only one to get it. I also got into MIT. So I most definitely had a profile to get into Cornell (engineering - toughest school).

All to say I don't think it actually holds as much weight as people think. It's more that Ivy grads have smart kids and apply to similar schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not go to a fancy school, but I am interested in how legacy admission works to the Ivies as my DC and their friends enter into this college application time. I get that kids who have a parent who went to an Ivy get some kind of boost in their admission consideration, but is there anything else involved? Like does the boost only happen if the parents have made contributions to the university? If so, how much is enough to get the extra boost? Do the parents have to be active alumni - going to reunions and sports games and otherwise talking up the university? Does legacy work “better” if there are multiple generations? What if the current applicant has really bad grades? Can that be overcome with a legacy consideration?

I am really just curious about how this rarefied world works.

🚨Troll Alert 🚨

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They say there is no connection between the development office and the admissions office (but top top donors are in a different category, I suppose). Development officers aren't supposed to ask for donations from alum whose kids are in the current application cycle (heard this directly from ours). I'm not sure how it really works. We've had family members get in with legacy and also rejected with legacy.

Some colleges have a development officer sit in admissions. It’s important to know which schools those are. Ask your schools college counseling team.

Not so at our HYP. Dev office and admissions are completely separate. Would you really ask your school counseling team? I would feel silly since we’re not mega donors. DC was accepted. We’re just not al donors.

We’re just normal donors

How much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions for Dartmouth, says on his podcast The Admissions Beat that legacy is not a thumb on the scale, but is a "feather on the scale." So, basically, a tie breaker. I believe it's a tiebreaker at Princeton also, because they have said previously that legacy only "mattered" to a small number of kids (I think they said maybe 33 or something like that, don't quote me).

My legacy kid got into an Ivy where we donate small amounts, but was rejected to a lower tier college (DH's alma mater) where we donated zero, so I do think (from a data point of 1) that giving something - even if small - for at least a few years does matter.

Finally, my legacy kid wanted to shoot for HYPMS and was rejected early, but still got into my legacy school RD, so I don't think it's essential that they apply early, but that's what we were told by many people. I know someone who applied early to their parent's legacy school and got in early, but I think they sort of felt like they *had* to apply early there or would have "no chance" at it.

Stanford, my alma mater, also calls it a feather on the scale. When there are so many highly qualified applicants vying for so few spots, however, I’m sure that feather can feel like a thumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions for Dartmouth, says on his podcast The Admissions Beat that legacy is not a thumb on the scale, but is a "feather on the scale." So, basically, a tie breaker. I believe it's a tiebreaker at Princeton also, because they have said previously that legacy only "mattered" to a small number of kids (I think they said maybe 33 or something like that, don't quote me).

My legacy kid got into an Ivy where we donate small amounts, but was rejected to a lower tier college (DH's alma mater) where we donated zero, so I do think (from a data point of 1) that giving something - even if small - for at least a few years does matter.

Finally, my legacy kid wanted to shoot for HYPMS and was rejected early, but still got into my legacy school RD, so I don't think it's essential that they apply early, but that's what we were told by many people. I know someone who applied early to their parent's legacy school and got in early, but I think they sort of felt like they *had* to apply early there or would have "no chance" at it.

Stanford, my alma mater, also calls it a feather on the scale. When there are so many highly qualified applicants vying for so few spots, however, I’m sure that feather can feel like a thumb.

Hmm. The last four admits I know to Stanford were all legacies. But that is just my personal experience, of course.