<p>I know there are lots of threads on CC debating how much being a legacy can help an applicant, but I'm wondering how much potential it has to hurt. I have a pretty significant legacy at Princeton (both parents, both grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins), and I'm wondering how much that could affect my chances at Yale. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>How would Yale know of your legacy status at Princeton?</p>
<p>I don’t know enough to tell you about your parents, but Yale won’t know your grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins since you don’t have to list them.</p>
<p>I know there’s a space on the application that asks you to list were your parents went to college, but you both make a good point, Yale wouldn’t necessarily know beyond that. Even so, I’d be considered a double legacy (unless I left the space blank); would that matter to adcoms?</p>
<p>They will absolutely not consider your parents’ legacy at a different school against you.</p>
<p>im pretty sure Yale is not haughty enough to use that against you
plus it just means that your parents were also smart and you have good genes</p>
<p>An assistant admissions dean at Harvard told a friend a few years ago that Harvard’s acceptance rate for Yale and Princeton legacies was only slightly lower than its acceptance rate for Harvard legacies. His point was that they really don’t care that much about Harvard legacies, but it also shows that they don’t go out of their way to discriminate against other colleges’ legacies. I would be very surprised if Yale were any different. (I got into Yale with that kind of legacy record at Harvard, but it was decades ago.)</p>
<p>The Yale Admissions Department doesn’t sit around worrying about upping its yield to improve its USNWR ranking. Yale thinks it is the best undergraduate experience going, and when it admits a student he or she is likely to enroll. Yale wins the vast majority of its head-to-head contests against every college other than Harvard, and it does better against Harvard than anyone else. So why would it shy away from admitting a Princeton legacy?</p>
<p>I was a double-plus Princeton legacy (parents, uncles, grandfather) and got into Yale…but not Princeton. </p>
<p>Unless your family donated a building, being a legacy does not really help at any of the Ivies. It certainly won’t hurt you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That shows something that I really very firmly believe. The effect of legacy does not so much come from the label, but from the fact that an applicant raised in the house of someone who graduated from, say, Yale, is more likely to be competitive at top schools than someone who wasn’t.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if Yale (or any top school for the matter) has an inkling that you clearly prefer another school, that will likely hurt you chances. Yield is a very important factor at this level, and do not underestimate the school’s wishes to maintain their yield rate. Why do you think the Princeton University Admissions office secretly accessed the Yale accounts of its applicants back in 2002?</p>
<p>^No. You have it 100% wrong. At this level – I don’t know about Princeton in 2002 – no one gives a rat’s butt about yield rate. Any of HYPS could easily get a 90% yield if they half tried (and reinstituted ED). Any of them would rather take a shot at a kid it likes than cede him to one of the others. Yale’s yield on kids it cross-admits with Harvard is not much lower than Brown’s or Penn’s yield on everyone it accepts, after you factor out ED. How in heck would Yale’s reputation be enhanced if it stopped admitting anyone likely to be admitted to Harvard or Princeton?</p>
<p>Students whose first choice is Yale is what early decision is for. It’s hard for me to believe they would play some guessing game to try to figure out who in their regular decision pool has Yale as their first choice. Most people apply to many schools because they don’t know where they will get in and they want to have somewhere to go in the Fall.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be so certain that all the EA students have Yale as their first choice, anymore. Since Princeton and Harvard no longer do any early admission stuff, I’m sure that a bunch of their early applicants opt for Yale instead.</p>