<p>My daughter is a double legacy, but I don't know if that counts anymore. Does anyone know if legacies are given an edge? My daughter would be "in the running" for Yale, but certainly not a shoo-in.</p>
<p>If her parents are legacies, it's a minor boost. It's really not that helpful unless your family has been giving (lots of) money over the years.</p>
<p>I agree with stele32. If your daughter has identical stats to another student's then your daughter will most likely be given preference in admissions. Don't expect it to offset a poor application; it just serves as a helpful boost.</p>
<p>Catherine, I definitely wouldn't count on legacy as giving your d a boost. At our hs several kids who were direct legacies were rejected after hanging on from EA to RD (deferred). My s was deferred EA and rejected RD. My father, grandfather and uncle all graduated from Yale. When my father went to his 55th reunion this spring he heard stories from other men who's grandchildren, with amazing stats and all kinds of international credentials were rejected.
OTOH I know a kid who was a substandard student ( and I emphasize substandard ) who got in because he was a good athlete.
Bottom line: Don't count on anything.</p>
<p>Athletics is definitely a big ticket into college, which is one reason so many parents push their kids in sports. Did you know that the Ivies and the LACS take more athletes than Big 10 schools? Since they don't have athletic scholarships, they can't "make" the kids play, so they have to take many more athletes than they need. A survey was done and for that year, Williams took 30% of their freshman class as athletes, which is one reason it is so much harder to get in for everyone else at these schools.</p>
<p>no, I didn't know that. Very interesting result from not having athletic scholarships.</p>
<p>athletics and URM status are extremely large boosts.</p>
<p>i think it might depend on how many and who the legacies are the year your child applies. 15% of last year's Yale classs were legacies. I think they try to keep the percentage within a certain range, but I do think the acceptance rate is higher for legacies than for other applicants as a whole. So maybe your odds go up from 10% to 18%- or something like that. So it's worth something, but not the tip it used to be.</p>
<p>From A is for Admission: "For legacies, green tags are administered. What exactly is a legacy? At most of hte highly selective colleges, it is defined as the son or daughter of a graduate from that undergraduate institution... Many people mistakenly think that grandparents or great-grandparents count ... nor do relatives who attended any of a college's professional schools."</p>
<p>However, I believe Yale does count children of grad school alumni as legacies. I know for sure that Harvard counts only those whose parents were undergrads at Harvard College. In other words, it depends on the school.</p>
<p>as a legacy...</p>
<p>grad school parents don't count, only undergrad. </p>
<p>the only thing legacy does is automatically get you into the room where the whole admissions board discusses your application, it doesn't give you a boost over other people who make it into that room (some are editied out by the regional rep beforehand). </p>
<p>the legacy admit rate is around 30%, but legacies have noticably higher test scores and grades than the general pool.</p>
<p>if you do donate TONS of money, a la george bush, your child will get in. we're talking library wings, though, not $1000 a year for the past 10 years or w/e.</p>
<p>good luck to your daughter, though! i'm a double-legacy too, i was admitted last year - what year are you? my parents are TD '79. If she wants some support, she can feel free to catch me on AIM: like10thousand.</p>