<p>I go to a top 10 college and had a question about sibling legacy. My little sister is a high school senior and really wants to go to this school but there might be a problem that I'm worried is my fault. During my freshman year, I sort of screwed up a lot and had to have a meeting with a student life dean near the end of my freshman due to some drinking problems. My GPA though never really fell too far and I've turned it all around this year. </p>
<p>When they look at my sister's application and see that she has me listed as a sibling, would the admissions committee look at my status in the college and look at her unfavorably? I don't want the mistakes I made to reflect poorly on my sister because she's worked so hard for this.</p>
<p>Hmm…I doubt they would penalize her, because I don’t think colleges consider sibling legacy (at least not the Ivies). Does she have to mark that she has a sibling there on her application? If not, I’d say it’s a pretty long shot for your freshman snafu to make it to the admissions committee.</p>
<p>Unless you were REALLY BIG TROUBLE (or go to a really small school), I’m not sure that they’ll notice or even really identify you on the application.</p>
<p>ctyankee. I don’t know if I can completely count on your words because then why would siblings be even looked at in admission? Your logic can be used exactly in the opposite way. If a great student is a sibling of an applicant, I think the chances do increase a bit.</p>
<p>Well yes. The correct answer to questions like this is “we know about as much as you do, and possibly even less since some of us haven’t applied for college for a while”. But that would be kinda boring, don’t you think?</p>
<p>Well, not to be harsh, but last I checked, it’s not your problem so the issue of you counting on my words is moot. That said, you need to apply better logic. The O.P’s question is whether his problems will reflect poorly on his sister’s application NOT whether it will help her. Those are two different things. To be more specific, my opinion is that the record of either a 'good or ‘bad’ sibling, translate to the ‘benefit of the doubt.’ So, a bad record becomes neutral and a good record becomes a plus. </p>
<p>Again, these are just opinions here as the data are not available in the common data set colleges report. So the importance of sibling admissions is considered too small to be much of a factor. As to your question as to why colleges care, perhaps some believe that the success of one sibling might have a positive correlation on the success of another sibling - - but there are other factors. Colleges all care about retention and graduation rates and having a sibling is just another indicator that if the college accepts the student they may enroll there and once enrolled, stay there.</p>
<p>What I’m about to say is based on general lore and understanding, and not on data, so take it for what it’s worth. I have heard that at many schools, sibling legacies generally benefit, as do other legacies. One of the ideas behind legacy preference is that people from families with strong identification with the school are likely to be stronger supporters of and donors to the school in later life. Accepting legacies may also improve yield, since they are more likely to attend (probably) than non-legacies. These factors are still present in the OP’s case. For OP’s problems to hurt his sister, either the admissions office would have to know about them already (highly unlikely), or they would have to inquire about a student’s performance when a sibling applies. I find it highly unlikely that they do this. In sum, I think it’s probably still to her advantage to identify you on her application.</p>
<p>If you had a problem, and you worked with the dean and resolved it, I can’t imagine that the school would hold it against either you or your sister. That’s why deans of student life have jobs. </p>
<p>There may be reasons why you feel guilty about what you did, but holding your sister back shouldn’t be one of them.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody, this was really eating away at me yesterday because she had applied through Questbridge and yesterday she found out she wasn’t matched. Needlessly to say, I was rolling in guilt that it might have been because of me. I really do hope the best for her</p>