Hey guys, I heard that the children of alumni get special consideration when applying to colleges. If my older brother went to Harvard, and I apply to Harvard, will I have a greater chance of getting accepted? I don’t mean to sound snobby or anything, just wondering if the rumor is true! :)) I was thinking of applying to Harvard EA anyways.
Thanks in Advance!!
Harvard says they only give a special read to applicants whose parent or parents went to Harvard college-- not siblings or grandparents, and not graduate school or prefessional school alums. Even if your parents are alums of the college, it helps a bit but doesn’t guarantee admission in any way (they say if you compare the stats of legacy admits, they look the same as regular admits, although it’s clear their admit rate is quite a bit higher). They also say it only helps if you’re applying EA, not In the regular pool.
There may be a boost but it didn’t help in the case of a kid from my son’s school this year. His grandparents, parents, and older brother were all Harvard graduates and he was rejected EA from Harvard despite being the class salutatorian (4.75 weighted GPA), near perfect SAT, and multiple awards from a top 25 high school in California.
He ended up deciding to go to Cornell, which is a good second choice, but this just illustrates how strange the college application process is.