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.

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.

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).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does double legacy help more than just one parent having gone to an ivy?

It hurts.

Haha. Seriously. Trying to gauge how much of a chance my kid has. 35 ACT 4.3 with all the hardest classes. Adequate ECs but nothing spectacular. Great writer. Don't want to set kid up for failure.

Anonymous wrote:Does double legacy help more than just one parent having gone to an ivy?

It hurts.

Does double legacy help more than just one parent having gone to an ivy?

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.

Watch the Dr Hofmann videos on YouTube. They explain it.

Here is what I saw in our school: The ones with legacy who got into ivy and ivy+ are generally qualified themselves. But at the same time, there are tons of applicants who are also qualified but without legacy didn’t get in. When I say “qualified”, I mean, top 15%ish, 1500+, good EC, blah blah…. Yes, the number of “qualified” candidates may be much much bigger than you think.

At most it will generally just help on the margin but every school is different and it partially depends on how involved the parents are. Those who made one $10 donation during their kid's senior year are not the same as those who give big bucks and/or were actively involved (money counts more than involvement).

But unless you are making gigantic donations, the kid still needs to be pretty close.

For the UMC kids with high but not top stats, good but not unique extracurriculars and no other hooks, it’s a “feather on the scale” at best.

It’s a factor and can help significantly but can also mean little and your kid is still not getting in.

Think of it as an EC. It's not enough to get you in on it's own, but it's a tie breaker. Only a factor in RD/REA. You don't get rejected by Yale and use your Harvard legacy.

It really depends on the school. During the past 5 years, many schools "say" they do not look at legacy for admissions any longer, as it creates an unfair disadvantage for applicants who are first in their family to attend college.

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.