<p>My son has very strong credentials, but he is competing agains numerous legacies applying to Yale frm his same small private school. Should I discourage his Yale application?</p>
<p>You shouldn't discourage him. Legacy status is perhaps the last tipping point for a borderline application. They may get re-reads before ultimate rejection as well. However, your son is being evaluated against the much larger pool of students from his region, not just his schoolmates who are applying. My local HS (not a BIG name) had four admits two seasons ago. A statistical abnormality for sure. Yale must have felt they were very strong individuals -- and didn't mind that they all went to the same public HS.</p>
<p>Certainly no one has a statistical "good" chance but if he really sees himself at Yale and his metrics are within range, I wouldn't discourage him.</p>
<p>Even if legacy were a big factor in applying, I certainly wouldn't discourage him from trying. The only way to know 100% that you won't get in is to not try at all. </p>
<p>I honestly don't think legacy is a very big factor. At my high school, all three of the legacies (two of which had near perfect SATs and a great GPA) were rejected. The majority of students here aren't legacies, and I believe your son will be compared to the application pool as a whole (or at least regionally), rather than within his own high school. Otherwise, it would make sense to go to a really crappy high school in order to look even more competitive against your immediate peers, and I don't think the Yale admissions want that.</p>
<p>I hope that legacy matters!</p>
<p>I'm kinda hoping it'll help me out...</p>
<p>Are your parent's "college education" also taken into account?
My parent's are immigrants and didn't go to really good colleges..</p>
<p>It's marginal. Socioeconomic considerations are secondary (or even tertiary) and at best only tip the balance in your favor ever so slightly if you are already on that threshold grey-area between being accepted/not being accepted.</p>