Does anyone know the nominal number of legacy that apply every year on average? They say about 1/3 accepted are legacy, but they never seem to say what the pool was. Is it twice the number, ten times the number accepted, just wondered if anyone had an idea?
The official percentage of a class who is legacy, defined as a parent or grandparent who attended Harvard College, is about 14%, which translates into about 280 admission offers/yr. Assuming they have a five times admission rate as non-legacy at 20% you have about 1400 applicants/yr. If you have 1600 H grads a yr, each having two children and four grandchildren on average, you have about 9600 legacies per year; apparently only 15% apply.
There is only room for parents. So they cannot see a grandparent legacy anymore. But these are assumptions. Two years ago, 335 were admitted. And last year, you had a much larger application pool. Last year, EA was 7% but the year before it was 14%. In the application pool of athletes, about 85% get accepted. Two years ago that was about 250. So 300 out of the 6500 were athletes applying. If 1500 are legacy, then that leaves 4700 of general population. If 350 out of 900 were legacy, 250 were athletes, then that leaves 300 acceptances out of the 4700. Or 7%. Which was the overall rate for EA last year. Which means, as the number of applications rises over 10K, the rate for the general is not that high in EA. If the number of legacies is as high as 1500 per annum.