legacy admissions at competitive colleges

[Anonymous]

Does legacy status help just by itself? Say, in a case where the parent alumnus has given relatively modest amounts to the school through the years and is not a particularly prominent person?

[Anonymous]

No. It could assist in a "tiebreaker" situation, but non-significant legacies don't make a difference alone.

[Anonymous]

It helps only if the student is "on the bubble".

[Anonymous]

Sure doesn't.

[Anonymous]

A friend who works in admissions said that at her university, an application from ANY alum's child gets reviewed by three admissions officers, just to see if there's anyone who wants to advocate for the kid, because different officers see different things.

[Anonymous]

In The Price of Admission, there was a snarky quip by admissions officer to the effect of: if the parent only contributed a few hundred a year, then we question the parents' career and financial choices. Yikes. And presumably not every admissions officer thinks like that.

[Anonymous]

A legacy applicant often needs to apply early decision, however. Otherwise the legacy preference effectively goes away in the general admissions round. The admission office figures that if the college is so important to you and your family, then it should be a clear first choice and you should apply early.

[Anonymous]

It didn't back in '88. I did get a very apologetic rejection letter, though.

[Anonymous]

if you are an alum of penn or dartmouth, the word is 2 million will get your legacy in for sure.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you are an alum of penn or dartmouth, the word is 2 million will get your legacy in for sure.

Well, that doesn't seem egalitarian.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

Mine does.

[Anonymous]

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.