<p>I went to a top school. While my D has good stats, they're hardly overwhelming. Why would my alma mater accept her over others? It certainly can't be for the $200 I give them annually. Someone told me that the ED admit rate for legacies at my college is 40%. I find that mind boggling.</p>
<p>Why does any school value legacies? What does it get them?</p>
<p>Legacies begat legacies begat legacies and so on and so on and so on…
Equate it to preaching to the choir.
Parents(alumni) don’t have to be convinced to pay full freight for their student.
The profile of the college is raised by happy parents, happy students, big endowments.
It’s the American Way. Why question it? Embrace it!</p>
<p>money…donations.</p>
<p>money…donations,connections…employment</p>
<p>I think it has to do with tradition. For years the elite colleges were more like country clubs than like the colleges of 2009.</p>
<p>“Why would my alma mater accept her over others”
All other factors being equal, a legacy is a “tip”, not a “hook” at top colleges. So it is not likely that you D will be accepted over more qualified applicants who are not legacies, especially as you are not a really big contributer. But she will likely get the nod over equally qualified non-legacy applicants.</p>
<p>It started due to tradition and money.</p>
<p>[qutoe]Someone told me that the ED admit rate for legacies at my college is 40%.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>the legacy admit rate at elite schools are more like 10-20%. The ED admit rate for hooked applicants overall is more like 40 percent with the majority of those being athletes.</p>
<p>It can’t be about the money. What’s the average alumni contribution at any school? Peanuts in the total scheme of things.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s just money, though that’s a part of it. Alums who are grateful to their undergrad alma mater tend to give something; very likely alums who are grateful not only for their own undergrad education but also for their offspring’s education probably give more, and I’m sure colleges track those figures closely. Other things equal, that might be enough to tip the admissions decision. </p>
<p>Beyond that, there’s yield: children of alums probably accept at a significantly higher rate when offered admission, so it helps with selectivity. Third, there’s the satisfaction factor: colleges will accept students for whom they’re a grudging second choice, but most would much rather have students who are truly glad to be there, and on average children of alums are probably more likely to have a positive view of the school and to be more grateful for admission than are applicants without those family ties. Then there are all the non-financial ways alums can help a school: by being willing to take interns and to make sure their businesses or organizations interview and hire from the school; being willing to serve as alumni interviewers; being active in local alumni organizations that may help raise a lot more money than the individual alumni donation; and so on. Mostly, I think, it’s about the care and feeding of alumni, one of a college/university’s most important constituencies after current faculty, students, staff, trustees, peers, bond raters, and legislators (if public). Since all these factors tend to point in the same direction, I think it ends up being an easy and relatively non-controversial call to give some, but not much, weight to “legacy” factors in admissions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s often about the money. All legacies are not treated equally. Those whose families have contributed generously and whose families contribute time to the school are treated much more favorably. You’d be surprised at how much some families give, especially in the years before junior applies. Doesn’t your school list donations by category, i.e. amount? Mine does and I watch the kids whose parents have been generous get in over others.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind the legacy, unless you give millions, needs to be qualified. This is a very competitive pool. One family I know who has given millions and have two kids currently enrolled have a third that didn’t get in this year. That surprised a lot of us, but apparently he just had below median stats.</p>
<p>At ivies, an average of 70% of legacy applicants are rejected today.</p>
<p>Many trustees are elected by alumns. Nuff said?</p>
<p>There is a site that can’t be referrenced here that gives legacy admit rates for top schools. Some indeed have ED rates above 40%, even though overall rates are in the teens (at least according to the site).</p>
<p>Hmom: My school does list donations annually, but I sure couldn’t tie it back to anybody’s kid’s admission. Based just on the class year, most of the big donation donors look too old to have had kids applying, but perhaps they had kids who went.</p>
<p>I have seen you say that unhooked applicants need higher than median stats for a reasonable shot. Would you say, then that a legacy only needs median stats?</p>
<p>With some schools, legacy only matters during the ED round.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see a chart breaking out legacies, athletes, URM, and unhooked.</p>
<p>"At ivies, an average of 70% of legacy applicants are rejected today.
OP, I think this is the statistic you need to keep in mind, not nuancing whether “median stats” are good enough to get the nod. The vast majority of legacy applicants at Ivy’s are rejected. Median stats are not enough to serve as a guarantee to acceptance these days.</p>
<p>Well sure. But far more than 70% of non legacies get rejected from the ivy’s.</p>
<p>A 30% admission rate is better than some of the UCs.</p>
<p>^^ very true. That’s why finding a well thought out safety school is so important these days.</p>
<p>A couple of cylces ago there was a thread on Legacy REJECTS, where parents chimed in about their children not being admitted to their alma mata.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/160468-legacy-rejects.html?highlight=legacy[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/160468-legacy-rejects.html?highlight=legacy</a></p>
<p>quilah, my insight, for what it’s worth, is based on working in admissions at an ivy three decades ago and 25 years of alumni interviews. When I see which legacies get in and which don’t, I can’t help but peak at the donation list for that class. I have found a strong correlation between category of giving and acceptance of child.</p>
<p>I think median stats are enough to get a legacy they want in, I don’t think most legacies with median stats get in.</p>