<p>Post #6 has it right. It matters being <em>active</em> alumni -- contributing regularly, even if not humongous amounts, and as #19 said, participating, being visible. A person I know whose daughter's only reach admit was Stanford, is very active alum. I'm reasonably sure that D had a very slim chance otherwise: was not as competitive stat wise, e.c.-wise, ethnically, etc. And as I mentioned, all other reaches rejected her.</p>
<p>How do you know this about being an "active" vs "passive" Doner. I went to Stanford and have not given a lot over the years because I have been socking it away for my son who is now a junior to pay for tuition. Maybe I should just have been sending it to them?</p>
<p>How do you know this about being an "active" vs "passive" Doner. I went to Stanford and have not given a lot over the years because I have been socking it away for my son who is now a junior to pay for tuition. Maybe I should just have been sending it to them?</p>
<p>I know that it doesn't help at Dartmouth. My friend would be the 5th generation to go there and he got rejected with underadverage test scores and grades. ED too. I am not sure how much under, but enough. Don't know about Stanford.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for legacies at Stanford is just over twice that of everyone else. However, they still do deny legacies. (and this is coming from someone who's a double legacy at Stanford and got rejected)</p>
<p>Does it matter how much you have contributed at Stanford over the years or is that irrelevant (unless it's to donate a building)?</p>
<p>Hah. Not for me it didn't. And my relative was first in the class, and literally talked his way into Stanford - he just showed up and convinced them to admit him. It was in the 80s though.</p>
<p>My daughter was rejected and is a two-generation legacy. It's supposed to help, but there's no way to know how much it really does to any individual. A rejection is still a rejection.
And I heard at a college seminar that the only way it helps for sure is "if your mother's name is on the library..."</p>
<p>I have a legacy including around 15 people on my dad's side of the family, dating back 4 generations, the first of which being my great uncle, who started Stanford Research Institute. We don't regularly give to Stanford, but my parents do attend Stanford events regularly. How much will this improve my chances of admittance?</p>
<p>Have never seen as many totally qualified legacies rejected from anywhere as I have from Stanford. I do think it's especially hard for Stanford legacies from California and NYC. If your parent's graduated and moved to South Dakota, you may be in better shape.</p>
<p>"but my parents do attend Stanford events regularly"
sorry but this means nothing to the admissions office these days.</p>
<p>I just read the last post on this thread, but at my son's high school, legacy seems to be a HUGE boost. I am not saying that the admits do not deserve their decisions, but three admissions (two legacies, none of the top several students) out of 22 (including most of the top several students) might mean something. I could be wrong, but, at the end of the day, Stanford seems to be thriving (whether it's because of or notwithstanding admissions policies is not really relevant).</p>
<p>menloparkmom:
does the fact that so many of my relatives attended matter?</p>
<p>
[quote]
...at my son's high school, legacy seems to be a HUGE boost.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Does your high school have a Naviance account? That would be an interesting scattergram.</p>
<p>Example:
<a href="https://connection.naviance.com/fc/signin.php?hsid=centralcatholic%5B/url%5D">https://connection.naviance.com/fc/signin.php?hsid=centralcatholic</a></p>
<p>If your relatives have contributed significantly over the years, either monetarily or through efforts for the school, it will count.</p>
<p>my great uncle founded Stanford research institute, but is that too far back?</p>
<p>If your family has an 'in' at Stanford, surely someone would know and know who to contact. You'll get much better input from your relatives than you will here.</p>
<p>Adcom don't just look at an application and say, wow, we've got a connected one here. They are contacted by the development office and your file is tagged.</p>
<p>From what I've seen, it helps quite a bit.</p>
<p>The only person ever accepted by Stanford from my school..EVER..was a double legacy (father + grandfather). </p>
<p>And now I applied...oh boy. XD</p>
<p>There is a whole lot of speculation on this thread with no data to back it up. Data are needed!</p>
<p>We could learn a great deal about legacy admissions at Stanford, if we had access to the the Naviance Stanford admit data and scattergrams from legacy-rich Palo Alto High School, and Gunn</a> High School, so as to compare these to other high-stat but non-legacy-rich schools such as [Bethesda-Chevy Chase<a href="guest%20password%20%5Bi%5DBarons%5B/i%5D">/url</a>.</p>
<p>Naviance doesn't detail whether an applicant is a legacy or not, however, at Paly and Gunn we would look for an incongruous tail of admits with lower stats not found at the likes of B-CC. If Stanford does have a material legacy advantage, such a tail at Paly/Gunn would almost certainly be the legacies.</p>
<p>Examples of somewhat lower stat Stanford legacy admits can be found amongst the scattergrams at [url=<a href="https://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=781&classYear=2012">https://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=781&classYear=2012</a>] CollegeData](<a href="https://connection.naviance.com/fc/colleges/scattergram_list.php">https://connection.naviance.com/fc/colleges/scattergram_list.php</a>), but the numbers are too few for legacies to draw conclusions.</p>
<p>There is no question there is a legacy advantage, the issue is how great is it? At the Palo Alto high schools, public and private, you're not just looking at legacies, but a lot of staff/faculty kids. Having recently spent time with a group of Stanford profs, I can tell you that their kids have a high bar to get in. Stanford is actively trying to reduce it's California student population, it has long been rare among top colleges in having so many from one state.</p>
<p>And I don't think anyone questions that at every college, all legacies are not created equal. Money talks.</p>