Anonymous wrote:My school has alumni workshops on how to get your kid into college (translated: he's not just going to waltz in here just because you're an alum!)

Schools want to help legacy candidates because it has been proven that doing so strengthens the school, but they can't let under qualified legacies in. The scores of legacies are on par with other applicants.

My school has alumni workshops on how to get your kid into college (translated: he's not just going to waltz in here just because you're an alum!)

Harvard’s acceptance rate for legacies has hovered around 30 percent— 4 to 5x the regular admission rate. That said, it means that the vast majority - 70% - of legacy applicants are rejected. The odds don't vary that much across the other Ivies and elite colleges. The bottom line is that it helps to be a legacy applicant, but you the odds are still very low.

Unless I am interpreting the data incorrectly, this only tells you that the number of matriculating legacies is roughly the same as the number of first generation and lower-income students. The number of applications from legacy applicants is smaller than one might think - as I know is the case with Harvard - but the multiplier in the acceptance equation is still fairly high; something like 3 or 4x as likely (without normalization for relative stats) So, good news for all in that the small group of loyal legacy applicants still have an edge in the process (not to be read as my endorsement of said edge) and the large number of at-large seats allows for a lot of new blood to enter the mix.

Within the context of an overall daunting acceptance picture, the crowding-out effect of so-called hooked students is often overblown and should not be a source of discouragement for motivated students. After all, the blood-line of a legacy has to start somewhere. Why not with you?

Anonymous wrote:30% at HYP but the kids have all the bells and whistles - it does help pull them out of the 35,000 applications, though.

Princeton is less than 10% and the legacy numbers for H&Y aren't included in the linked data.

30% at HYP but the kids have all the bells and whistles - it does help pull them out of the 35,000 applications, though.

It only helps if you are on the bubble.

9% of Princeton

The stats suggest that the legacy hook isn't as big a factor as some think. From the attached report, you can see that only 13% of Penn, (5 of Princeton and 8% of Dartmouth students were legacy. There seems to be a roughly comparable number of first generation college students: http://theivycoach.com/2018-ivy-league-admissions-statistics/