<p>My daughter is a HS soph. 3.8 unweighted honors student in a competitive public HS. Nothing else spectacular about her resume (some sports, volunteerwork, etc.) Her dad graduated U of M. How much weight might that carry?</p>
<p>I would think not much...there are like half a million UM alumni so its not like being the child of an alum is a really unique thing. Legacy definetly wouldn´t make or break an app.</p>
<p>I agree w/ kb...even under michigans old point system i believe legacy was only worth 2-3 points out of 100...nowadays w/ the new comprehensive system...i would imagine it may even be less..</p>
<p>Doesn't matter at all. You don't get any preferential treatment. Your application doesn't get flagged, etc. They just say "oh, that's nice". Tons of kids were rejected/waitlisted who were legacies.</p>
<p>I disagree - it counts a little bit. Your daughter is only a sophomore, but her grades so far are definitely within U-M range. She should take an AP-loaded curriculum, study hard for SATs, and write original essays. The fact that she's not really a standout in anything is OK. If she's in sports, maybe she could be a team captain. The legacy gives her an edge over someone with identical statistics.</p>
<p>Just because some legacies get rejected, one cannot conclude legacy status doesn't matter at all. And it is absolutely untrue that a legacy app doesn't get flagged. Applicants are specifically asked, and every reader would see that as part of the app. There is a field for it in the database, too--they don't just note whether a student is a legacy, but how many alums are in the family, and whether that person(s) is/are a parent, sibling, grandparent, etc. </p>
<p>That said, I don't believe it constitutes a big boost. It can help candidates, but it will not, by itself, vault them way above other applicants.</p>