Read a lot about whether legacy helps in applications, but what about the opposite? Would a kid with parental legacy at one school be more likely to be yield protected or be negatively impacted even slightly when she applies to another college (assuming she meets all the qualifications)?
Huh ? No one is going to sayâŠyou are applying to school A. but your parents went to school B and C so letâs reject them.
Edit. Maybe Iâm not understanding. Legacy will help at some schools. Others are going away from it bcuz it brings in only rich kidsâŠis the argument.
Not sure I get the question but legacy or non legacy status should not impact where you apply. If schools are bringing in a lot of legacy I suppose it impacts everyone else in a lower rate. High ED would be a much bigger factor.
Not sure I get the question but legacy or not should not impact where you apply.
No. Itâs not like legacy is a guaranteed ticket anymore
What I meant was, say both parents of a candidate went to college A which has a strong writing program. If she applies to college B in RD for the english dept, will that increase temptation of admissions at college B to presume sheâs likely to get into and go college A (with familiarity or legacy leg up even if minor), and to give a spot to another candidate instead? Akin to yield protection.
Thatâs the whole thing with yield protection right? Schools assess whether the candidate is likely qualified for other colleges (usually similar or stronger ones) and if they are plus thereâs legacy involved, then it plays into the whole notion of yield protection.
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No. If 90% of students attended the same school as their parents did, that is one thing, but I donât think they do.
Plenty of students have no interest in attending their parentâs alma mater. Others apply to make a parent happy and because they donât HATE the school, but it is nowhere near the top of the list.
It would be a huge assumption to conclude the student applied as a legacy in the first place and another to conclude they would automatically prefer the legacy school. I donât think AOs engage in guessing games like that and I doubt the data would show other school legacies to be a yield risk. (It would be interesting to see the numbers.)
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For many schools there is only a legacy bump in ED so I donât think there is any risk of having legacy elsewhere hurting in the RD round.
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NoâŠthe majority of students do not attend their parentâs college for a variety of reasons.
Interesting. So under this view, legacy is only useful in ED, in which case she would have either already been accepted and committed, or if she goes into the RD pile at the legacy school her legacy status is no longer as helpful for her. This then reduces odds of other colleges deciding against âwastingâ a spot to her.
No, legacy can only help at an institution, not hurt at other institutions. How would the school even know which schools the parents had attended? The applications ask what level of education the parents have, but not which specific schools they attended.
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Interesting questionâI have always wondered this too, if schools use it as part of yield assessment (ie family connections at another school makes matriculation at any non-connected school less likely). The question of where each parent went to college was on every college app last yearâor at least mostâas well as questions on where graduate degrees were obtained. I actually was remembering it as a Common App question? But maybe it was individual schools that questioned it. I was just the last-minute proof-reader of each app so I still do not fully understand how the common app works. And some asked about siblings too! So for D23 I would certainly hate it if schools assume she wants to go where her parents did and where her sister currently is! Maybe if they have kids themselves they will understand that a current sibling can very well make them LESS likely to want to go!!
Yes the Common App asks for parentsâ education and also where they went.
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Thatâs actually not true - the common app asks where your parents went to college/grad school. I donât think it is an issue or that it would hurt you at other schools, but they do ask.
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Thatâs way overthinking. No
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How many schools actually say that?
I know one is commonly believed to say that on these forums, but the actual wording in two places on its web site does not actually say that, but instead makes a much weaker statement about legacy and ED there.
Cornell tells their alumni that directly. I believe the same is true at Penn. We also heard it repeated at the competitive schools we toured (although at this point, that was 4 years ago so perhaps things have changed).
The Common App also asks other similarly unnecessary (and perhaps intrusive) questions. Students who feel that way should try to use the Coalition App, which doesnât have (or have fewer) these types of questions, if all the colleges theyâre applying to are on the Coalition platform.
I guess itâs too late now- never thought about looking into the Coalition app. I also thought it was intrusive on some college apps where they ask where the parent was born if born outside the US.
@GrantFixer your question has also crossed my mind- particularly if a kid is not applying RD to a school- do they think the kid is applying ED to the legacy school.
UPennâs actual statements are here and here.
âWe appreciate that attending Penn is a tradition for many families. The Admissions Office identifies legacy applicants based on the information provided in a studentâs application and defines âlegacyâ as being either a child or grandchild of alumni. Legacies who apply to Pennâlike all applicantsâreceive thorough consideration in the application process.â
âLegacies who apply to Penn receive thorough consideration in the application process.â
These are even weaker statements on the subject than they previous had on their web pages, which said something to the effect of legacies who apply ED receive thorough consideration, but did not say that legacy is not considered during RD (so effectively stating that legacy ED >= legacy RD >= 0). But the current statements are even weaker than that.
Cornell does not seem to have any easily findable statement on the matter on its web site.
Well, I would imagine that it would certainly draw admissionsâ attention if the RD school has a program that is very similar as the legacy school, for which the candidate is a strong candidate. This after all lies at the heart of what âyield protectionâ is all about. I do agree that itâs a bit of a risky move on the part of RD admissions. And as momofboiler1 above noted, legacy status tend to mostly help ED applicants, who by virtue of applying in RD to another school means the applicant was not accepted via ED at the legacy school.