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<li><p>How exactly can Harvard tell if you're legacy or not? I was surprised to see that there wasn't a section for this in the application (In terms of listing people other than your parents). What if they're a direct family member, but they have a different last name as you?</p></li>
<li><p>Let's say that neither my mother nor father went to Harvard, but everyone else in their family did. That means my uncles, aunts, grandparents, and great-grandparents are/were Harvard alums. Does this count as legacy? I don't see how it couldn't; what if there was a circumstance (Such as recruitment to another school, etc.) where your parents didn't go to Harvard? Does that just annul the fact that everyone else in your family went to Harvard?</p></li>
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<p>^ Yeah, you’re not a legacy. The education of your parents is listed on the Common App. Duh. If you claim your folks went to Harvard, they cross-reference the files to confirm. Personally, I’m not a fan of the legacy boost, so don’t take it personally when I tell you not to get angry at the world because everyone else in your family besides your parents went to Harvard.</p>
<p>yes, the definition of legacy is a parent who attended. Having said this, if this were not Harvard, but a small private school that few had heard of, how many people would object to a student getting preference because family attended that school? Fundamentally, it is about building a community. As a very successful person and Harvard alum who also has attended state schools, great state schools, practically for free, many state schools are just as good as any private school and I am not sure why applicants seem to not understand that private schools are about developing an inter-generational community and not about treating everyone equally. Guys, grow up, life is not “fair” by your definition of what “fair” is.</p>
<p>^Nah.
There are thousands of applicants and thousands of last names, adcoms might see “Kennedy” or “Ma” and that won’t mean anything… I would think Harvard would strictly bind to its code of “parent = legacy” policy. So sorry to put a downer, but most likely not.</p>
<p>I had the same question and coincidently this basically is my case, with my entire mothers side basically at harvard and my fathers at Yale, not sure ho that worked out, but it did! However, neither my parents attended or even applied, because they rebelled. Sure, them not going to harvard or Yale led to them meeting which led to my existence,nits still annoying. However, at my interview, I was able to tell my alumni of all my relatives who attended. She said that they do still count, but that harvard only looks two generations up and that’s the limit, so my great grandfather, and great great and great great great, all don’t count, which sucks since they actually all went. Haha. Hope this helps! If you didn’t get to tell anyone about it, then you’re pretty much out of luck. Sorry!</p>