Does having a parent who attended a prestigious college (Georgetown, Notre Dame, John Hopkins, Tufts, etc) actually help someone get into the school?
It can be a small hook to be a legacy. Depends on the school. IMO, being first generation to go to college seems to be more of a hook these days.
Without the rest of the package (grades, test scores, ECs, recs, essay, etc…), no.
Agreed. Again, it depends upon the college. It might be beneficial in those rare cases of “all other things being equal,” but probably won’t help if the stats are appreciably below the average of accepted students.
Look at the Common Data Set for each of the colleges in section C7, Alumni/ae relation and it will tell you if it is considered.