My son’s grandfather and great-grandfather both went to Holy Cross. His grandmother was a 1950’s master’s graduate at BC, one of very very few women. I get the feeling the Catholic colleges value legacy and it only recently occurred to me that my son might benefit from grandparent legacy…or not?
How a college defines legacy is left to the individual college. Similarly, each college decides how much of a bump, if any, legacy will be given.
In general, and this is the case of BC (no Idea about HC), legacy is defined as a parent having attended/graduated the college. A smaller number of colleges include grandparents in their definition. Also, again in general, legacy for more selective schools may play a small part when all other things are equal (which they never are), but the expectation is that the applicant still needs to meet the academic standards.
Regardless, there is no box on the application that says "Check here if you are legacy."The applicant enters the information asked for and the college will use it as it sees fit. So, for all intents and purposes, you need to file it under “it is what it is.”