Does legacy really help?

<p>Hi all,
As the son and nephew of Columbia grads, I have always been curious to the degree being a 'legacy' actually helps. I've been told answers from all around the board, such as "It only helps if they've donated," or "It only helps if they're active in the alumni community," and some have even told me that legacy doesn't help at all. Do any accepted legacy students think legacy to Columbia really helped their odds? If so, were your parents active alumni?
Thanks in advance! :x </p>

<p>It would be impossible to say to what extent being a legacy helped with acceptance for a particular student. </p>

<p>I’m sure that having a legacy is always helpful, especially if your parents are active/have donated. That being said, legacies are still a very small factor for most people. I can’t imagine it swinging a decision for 99.9% of applicants. </p>

<p>from what I’ve gathered college confidential (idk how true this is), legacy status may be able to cover up a slightly lower SAT score, a boring letter of rec, etc.; just one of those things, something minor<br>
overall I’m sure the applicant still has to be very strong</p>

<p>As you said, you have been told many different things around this board, and this is just another example. Nobody can give you a definitive answer. The answer is very likely to be yes, it does help to SOME degree. How much is anybody’s guess.</p>

<p>I haven’t looked into other colleges but I ran across a stat that Brown legacies get in at around a 30 pct rate as opposed to the overall rate of 9 pct and the ED rate of 18 pct (20 pct this last year of which a large amt are athletes.) Now maybe Columbia is different and maybe not. At some colleges (Penn) they say it only counts ED.</p>

<p>Legacy definitely helps at many schools, including Columbia. Here’s a Q&A from Columbia’s admissions website:</p>

<p>

As to how much it helps, that’s a more difficult question. I’ve seen stats like the ones @BrownParent is quoting for other schools as well (though haven’t seen Columbia stats), but I don’t think they really give much guidance without knowing how the legacy applicant pool compared to the general applicant pool on other factors. For example, I’ve heard the dean of admissions at Harvard say that the average GPA and SAT scores for legacy admits at Harvard are actually a little higher than the average for admitted students overall, and I’ve also heard that children of Harvard grads have a much higher rate of admission to other Ivy League schools such as Yale and Princeton (where they aren’t legacies) compared to those schools’ overall admissions rates. So it’s quite possible that the higher admissions rate for legacies is attributable in large part to other advantages, such as family environment, preparatory schooling and genetics, rather than the legacy advantage.</p>

Being a legacy definitely helps, especially for ED. Frequently legacy students are just or more qualified, are enthusiastic, are donors, and live in the area. Columbia, however, does not weight legacy students as much as Harvard and Princeton, were 30% of the class are frequently legacies.

^^ No, both Harvard and Princeton accept about 30% of their legacy applicants but they only make up about 15% of the class. Columbia’s legacies are only high single digits as a percentage of the class if I remember correctly.