<p>I feel like a lot of the people who get in are either legacies or have good connections. Is this true? What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Definitely true in my eyes. That’s how it works.</p>
<p>It’s true if “a lot” means 15-20%. Legacies are around 15%, I believe. It is completely unclear whether being a legacy actually helps with admission. The admissions department is probably under as much pressure to keep the legacy percentage down as to keep it up. The notion that under-qualified legacies get admitted is a thing of the past.</p>
<p>A few years ago, a senior Harvard admissions officer told a friend that Harvard’s admission rate for Yale and Princeton legacies was essentially the same as for Harvard legacies. Not that they favored Yale and Princeton legacies – it was just that children of smart, successful parents tended to produce good applications. He said most of the consideration given to legacy status came in the context of checking to make certain that they weren’t admitting too many of them.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the facts are for Harvard, but a few years ago the president of Yale said that Yale’s legacy admits had higher average SATs and GPAs than the rest of the class, and had above-average academic performance once admitted.</p>
<p>As for other connections, sure, children of Presidents, Senators, and Fortune 100 CEOs (dictators, too) get admitted, but not in such great numbers that they take up a whole lot of room.</p>
<p>Recruited athletes probably take up roughly an equivalent number of slots.</p>
<p>But the rest, the majority of people admitted, are neither legacies nor the beneficiaries of great connections. They’re just really good applicants.</p>
<p>Ditto what JHS said. A lot of kids of Ivy alumni are talented. It’s probably high-achieving kids of low to average socioeconomic level from average families and unexceptional public schools who have an extra “hook” at Harvard. The College has made great strides in the last couple decades in looking for “their share” of such kids who Harvard had historically been missing.</p>
<p>Well put JHS.</p>