Reply to Mixed feelings about legacy

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Mixed feelings about legacy"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Spouse and I graduated from different HYPS. Our DC is starting to think about college, and we recently learned that my alma mater provides a 2x admissions bump for legacy applicants, while spouse's provides a whopping 3x. With these numbers, DC literally has a better chance of attending HYPS than a less prestigious university that may be a better fit!

DC's academics and extracurriculars are not in question, but with college admissions these days resembling a lottery for many, many highly qualified yet unhooked applicants, I am under no illusion that DC is "special" enough to be accepted to a highly selective school without the legacy bump.

DCUMers who have BTDT, how did/do you and your DC feel about her/his/their legacy status? Grateful? Guilty? Pressured?[/quote]

First, there is no way to know -- either now or when your kids will eventually apply to college -- that there is a "2x bump" or "3x bump" for legacy applicants. A large percentage of legacy applicants with stats above the 75% percentile and excellent EC's are denied.  The actual benefit of legacy status cannot be quantified without full regression analysis controlling for all other factors relevant to admissions. And if you are relying on the Harvard litigation data it is old data and irrelevant to admissions in the future -- particularly if schools remain largely test optional.

Second, legacy has little to no benefit outside of the SCEA and ED applications.  So if you want any legacy bump you are surrounding the opportunity to possibly attend other schools that may be a better fit for your kid (which you acknowledge).  The legacy tradeoff for having to apply ED or SCEA is real.

All three of my kids attended the same Ivy where my wife and I went.  We encouraged them to apply elsewhere (including another Ivy where they also would have been a legacy) but all three were most familiar with and comfortable with the double legacy school and insisted that they apply there ED.   If the legacy school really is a great fit and the kids first choice school then legacy (like other admission hooks) is nothing to feel guilty or pressured about.  [/quote]

Great points, thank you! T[b]he numbers above were provided by the respective admissions offices[/b] just a few months ago, so I do trust the accuracy, although of course you are correct that they could change by the time my DC applies to college.[/quote]

You do realize that a 2x bump means the admission odds go from, say, 6% to 12%.   Still VERY unlikely to gain admissions.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics