I’ve heard that early admits at top colleges are usually athletes and legacies, and that the benefit of being a legacy is much stronger when applying early action. Any truth to these?
Not “usually,” no, but significantly, yes.
This is very likely true.
There are some colleges where being a legacy Only matters during ED.
being a legacy only gets you so far. perhaps a couple of generations ago it carried more weight. now sometimes it can even harm you.colleges now do a lot of social engineering in who they admit…especially at schools with highly competitive admissions …like HYPS etc. and being seen to have privilege is a strike against you.
About half of the undergraduates at those schools attend with no financial aid, meaning that they are from very high (top few percent) income/wealth families, so it is not like coming from a high privilege background hurts for admission to those schools.
The question was about legacy not wealth. If the eltist schools wanted to they could admit 100% high income students. Being a legacy like the op…asked about is not the benefit it was say 50 years ago.
The notion that legacies can be a negative is demonstrably untrue, and legacy admissions is also social engineering.
Why do colleges want legacies?
Well, it will depend on the college, but here’s one point of view:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/theartofgettingaccepted/f/legacy-admissions.htm