Have any of the studies looking at the impact of legacy connections ever separated out otherwise hooked vs. otherwise unhooked legacies?
Here’s what I’m thinking; two of the primary “hooks” in college admissions are preference for development admits and recruited athletes. It’s possible that both are disproportionately taken advantage of by legacy families. Not all legacies are created equal. At these schools far more legacies are denied than admitted. A legacy whose family has given considerable donations to the school may be admitted as a development admit rather than a straight legacy. Even in the absence of past donations, the chance of the family a kid whose dad or mom graduated from an elite school having the capacity to endow a faculty chair or build a new science wing is obviously greater than that of a first gen. kid.
A lot of families I know who are sending their kids to Ivies and other elite universities and LACs are sophisticated about the process because they went to these schools themselves. They gave targeted donations. They signed their kids up for fencing lessons or got them involved in rowing at a young age. They sent their kids to schools with exceptional sports programs and a reliable record of preparing kids, even kids with mediocre SAT’s, for the rigors of an elite school.