<p>This just occurred to me, and please excuse me in advance if the obvious answer is eluding me, but I'm wondering how schools verify legacy claims? DS is a junior, so I haven't yet looked that closely at the Common App let alone particular school supplements, but don't they just ask you to list names, relationships, and year graduated? How exactly does this work?</p>
<p>TIA</p>
<p>Colleges keep a record of everyone who has attended and graduated, they check the list to see if the person on the common app is the also on their list.</p>
<p>When I filled out the common app, they just asked (in a supplement) for my legacy parent’s name, date of graduation and degree earned.</p>
<p>Thanks for your quick response meteman. That seems like the simplest approach. But I’m asking because DS has a pretty common last name, as do his father and grandfather. Just seems like this would be a pretty simple workaround, pick up a yearbook, find someone with the same name…I can’t imagine schools are spending alot of time with this with all the things that go into thousands of received applications.</p>
<p>There are alot of things schools don’t check, if one really wanted to you could lie about nearly anything (awards, ECs). Many colleges just choose to believe applicants (most) of the time.</p>
<p>I mean if you check African American on an App, they don’t ask for a family tree or a picture.</p>
<p>Agree with meteman, an example would be that student at Harvard who faked pretty much his entire academic history.</p>
<p>The adcoms (or their clerks) can just type in the name to the computerized alumni list and see if the name and graduation date match.</p>
<p>Offices of Development and Alumni Relations at every college purchase access to databases where they can keep tabs on alumni: address, work info, etc. This is how they can flag people (both alumni & incoming students) as “Development” candidates. It’s amazing how much they can compile.</p>
<p>When Anderson Cooper (CNN 360) was a Class Day speaker at Yale, he remarked how the Yale Alumni fund could find him wherever he was assigned overseas. He joked that if Osama Bin Laden had graduated from Yale, the Alumni Fund would have his current address!</p>
<p>You could probably pick a random woman from the seniors in the Class of 1964 yearbook and say she is your grandmother. I do not think they will send her a letter asking her if you are her grandson. No one would expect your last name to be the same as your grandmother’s last name 
You would have to hope she doesn’t work with or live next door to your admissions officer, though! And that they don’t send her a letter after you are admitted asking, “Does she want to increase her donations to the Annual Fund now that her grandson is attending?”</p>
<p>Seriously, who would lie about something like this?</p>
<p>When my son applied to Yale, and listed my father as an alumni, they sent a letter to my father saying that they received my son’s application and would consider it. So maybe that is one way to avoid someone putting a name down of someone who they are not related to.</p>
<p>Sadly, I think the whole admissions game has gotten so competitive that students will try anything - - including this type of cheating - - to gain an advantage.</p>
<p>Fortunately, falsifiers do get caught sometimes, as did a white student who claimed to be black. When he was found out, his offer of admission to Stanford was rescinded. See pp 220-222 in Questions and Admissions: Reflections on 100,000 Admissions Decisions at Stanford By Jean H. Fetter</p>
<p>Wow, SV2, that’s an impressive gamble; yeesh! The poster who made the point about applicants falsifying ECs, awards, etc.; I guess the legacy thing comes under the same heading. As for the poster who asked “Who would do something like this?” I think cheating on applications, or at least stretching the truth, is probably more rampant than we think. Anyway, DS is interested in the school where is father graduated as well as the one where his grandfather did, though I don’t think either one ever set foot on campus again, let alone gave money!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your thoughts.</p>
<p>How do you find out if being a legacy counts for anything? Do schools publish that?</p>
<p>When my son applied to Connecticut College, he (accurately) listed my (deceased) mother as his legacy connection. He received several letters mentioning the legacy connection, and was eventually admitted, but is attending elsewhere.</p>
<p>His cousin, with the same grandmother, did not list the legacy, and was not admitted. IIRC, the cousin had slightly better grades and stats. </p>
<p>Who knows!</p>
<p>cnp55, that made for an interesting controlled experiment. My S and I were very impressed with Conn College after a visit earlier this year. I think it will still be on his list when it’s time to apply. Just to keep things on topic, no legacy there for him :-)</p>
<p>hmm, so should put in personal ad, divorced white female, IVY grad, could be available for stepmom status for 2012 applicants? </p>
<p>PS Should I add not Cornell?</p>
<p>Years ago, there was a spoof somewhere–I really can’t remember where now. Anyway, the board of trustees of a college had to decide whether an applicant who was the result of an egg donation by an Ivy grad could claim legacy status. In the spoof, the price of Ivy eggs depended on the answer. It may have been on SNL.</p>
<p>They know current addresses of alumni. Pretty easy to cross check.</p>
<p>Yes, you can list someone else, but you are taking that chance that you get caught on something stupid like that. It’s funny how small the world of colleges is and who knows whom. When I return to my old school, there are always many people I know and word of this and that really gets around.</p>
<p>I know a story where someone whose dad is an identical twin, tried to use the alumni connection. Got caught. Lies often have short legs.</p>