<p>Almost every school which practices holistic admission and publishes their CDS online lists work experience as at least considered for admission. Most schools also heavily consider the essay, and nothing is stopping an applicant from describing how an incident at McDonald’s shaped his world view.</p>
<p>Additionally, the Common App does limit the number of ECs an applicant can put down.</p>
<p>“Did he include the effect of Early Action/Decision programs?”</p>
<p>Figure 1 from Hurwictz paper indicates that he did take early action into account.</p>
<p>“Is the study available to read for free somewhere?”</p>
<p>Unfortunately it appears that you need to pay $19 to gain full access to the paper.</p>
<p>"I doubt students who applied to multiple colleges were representative of the overall legacy pool. Let’s see. You apply early to Harvard, as a Harvard legacy. You get in. Do you submit any other applications?</p>
<p>Why would you?"</p>
<p>Because the admit rate for Harvard legacies applying SCEA is about 30%. You could wait until the SCEA announcement deadline of Dec 15 before applying to another college however as a practical matter it makes more sense to apply RD to other schools before Dec 15. The results of his study indicate he is working from a large data set (see post #18). </p>
<p>Colleges which consider legacy status in admissions do not want to publicly reveal how much of a preference it is, because they want legacies and their parents to believe the preference to be large (to keep donations coming, and to imply that if a legacy is rejected, s/he did not even meet the legacy standards), but they want non-legacies to believe that the preference is small (so that they believe that they have some chance of admission, instead of figuring that they have no chance and stop applying).</p>
<p>Four schools would be better. Ten is still too many.</p>
<p>Guidance counselors in high schools seem to direct lower income students to state schools, without explaining that some privates can actually be cheaper. Also, I know kids who have done amazing service, say, in directing kids in theater, but the kids and their parents were not savvy enough to know they could get the theater director to write a letter. instead they obediently send in the two teacher recs and the colleges never know their real character.</p>
<p>“Colleges which consider legacy status in admissions do not want to publicly reveal how much of a preference it is, because they want legacies and their parents to believe the preference to be large (to keep donations coming, and to imply that if a legacy is rejected, s/he did not even meet the legacy standards), but they want non-legacies to believe that the preference is small (so that they believe that they have some chance of admission, instead of figuring that they have no chance and stop applying).”</p>
<p>Nice blanket statement, but untrue. Northwestern specifically reveals its legacy acceptance rates. It goes out in emails to the alumni community every year. I don’t keep and file them away, but I am reasonably sure I actually posted the full text of one on CC a few years ago when my son was applying. </p>
<p>My alma mater (Yale) publishes its legacy admit rate for as long as I’ve known. It hovers around 20% these days. Don’t know what it may have looked like 10 years ago. Didn’t note it then. Reg admit rate is just near 7% so it’s a 3 times statistical boost.</p>
<p>Could my senior get in? Dunno (likely not) – she’s laser focused on a handful of engineering schools. So I won’t ever know. C’est la vie – I’m not fretting.</p>
<p>Where she ever got into wanting to study computer engineering is lost on me! Neither my wife or I ever imparted this techie side to her. LOL</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Acceptance rates say very little about the actual admission thresholds, since the strength of the legacy applicant pool may differ from that of the entire applicant pool. Unless, of course, you are referring to acceptance rates banded by measures of applicant strength (e.g. the holistic review ratings by admissions readers, or at least GPA / rank / test scores).</p>
<p>Yale has explicitly stated that their legacies have higher SATs than the applicant pool at large. This completely makes sense, because legacy parents are going to be <em>less</em> likely to have their on-the-low-edge kid toss in a Hail Mary app. It also makes sense, because Yale legacy families are likely to be higher income / more affluent than the applicant pool at large. There’s little reason to believe the pattern isn’t generally similar for most elite schools. </p>
<p>If you wanted to make the argument that “less academically qualified” athletes make it in, there’s sufficient evidence for that - and then it becomes a value judgment whether or not you believe athletic performance is something to consider. There isn’t any such evidence for legacies, other than sour grapes.</p>
<p>The other thing to note is that the better the student experience / higher the loyalty engendered, the more the next generation will want to apply. It is a GOOD thing if a school is so engaging that the kids of its alumni want to attend. Look at Notre Dame as an example. Huge chunks of their applicant pools ARE legacies! They could “disfavor” legacies and STILL have a lot of legacies on campus.</p>
<p>One thing I’ll note about legacy admissions is that the majority of legacy-kids who get in are NOT from families who have donated heavily (or at more than token rates). It’s easy to pretend “oh, it’s because their families are donating at high levels” but anyone who is really familiar with legacy families knows otherwise. And frankly at the true development levels (7 figures and above), whether or not the donor is an alum is actually irrelevant. </p>
<p>“Yale has explicitly stated that their legacies have higher SATs than the applicant pool at large.” </p>
<p>“Mr. Hurwitz’s research found that legacy students, on average, had slightly higher SAT scores than nonlegacies.” </p>
<p>“If you wanted to make the argument that “less academically qualified” athletes make it in, there’s sufficient evidence for that” </p>
<p>“There isn’t any such evidence for legacies, other than sour grapes.”</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>From a paper by Thomas Epenshade discussing the SAT scores of athletes and legacies (on a 1600 point scale) at Elite Universities:</p>
<p>“Other things equal, recruited athletes gain an admission bonus worth 200 points, while the preference
for legacy candidates is worth 160 points.”</p>