<p>I'm a Princeton legacy, but I like Yale a tiny bit more. My stats: 2380, 4.0 hardest curriculum, one very very unusual and advanced extracurricular + Prez of 7 clubs at school (book club, cross country, math team, etc). Essays read by several English teachers, said absolutely perfect and represent my essence in writing. Teacher recs are both the best they've ever seen. So, should I apply to Princeton or Yale early?</p>
<p>Oh, I have a sibling at grad school at Yale</p>
<p>If you could get both ideal situations, i.e. an accept from both PTon and Yale – which would you prefer to have in your hand on Dec 15th more? Apply to that one. </p>
<p>What do your parents want you to do? If they would strongly prefer you to apply to Princeton early, perhaps that could outweigh your “tiny” preference for Yale.</p>
<p>I guess you can’t go wrong with either one. But what T26E4 said makes sense: if you could have both acceptances in your hands the same day which one would you go with? My son applied SCEA to Princeton and got deferred:( and within 2 weeks he completed another 10 applications including 5 other ivies, 2 privates and 3 public schools…He got into all of them except Princeton and he ended up choosing Yale. I guess things happens for a reason and now he can’t see himself anywhere else. Good luck with your choice!</p>
<p>An anecdotal illustration of T26E4’s point: My son applied SCEA to Yale and was accepted. Many of his peers and even some teachers encouraged him to apply RD to HPMS. He was feeling pressured to apply, until we had a conversation where the question was raised: if you could trade your Yale acceptance for any other school, which one would it be? The answer that he’d keep his Yale acceptance resolved it. So, if either Y or P would have that reaction with you, that’s my recommendation. </p>
<p>Otoh, if it’s not resolved that way, then my personal and amateur recommendation would be to apply to Princeton. As Hunt says, in a tie you should probably defer to your parents’ preference (assuming that P is their preference). I also think that it might possibly be the case that legacy counts for more in the early rounds than later. </p>
<p>I’m not really certain that legacy actually counts for much at Princeton or Yale, but it’s certainly possible that Princeton admissions staff would regard an RD application from a well-qualified legacy as an indication that Princeton was not the applicant’s first choice. How much difference that would make is another question – I imagine Princeton devotes more attention to figuring out which applicants it wants than to gauging how much which applicants want it. And, on the other hand, to the extent your attitude makes a difference, you could get a tiny boost at Yale if they see a Princeton legacy applying SCEA to Yale – that’s a powerful signal in its own right.</p>
<p>The dirty little secret, though, is that HYP have essentially the same admission rates for each other’s legacies as they do for their own. Your advantage in applying to any of them is really in having grown up in a household that valued education and achievement and was sophisticated about college, and you probably have some decent genetic material in the intelligence department. It’s really not worth obsessing over some tiny difference in admission probabilities based on how you sequence your applications, between colleges that are both fantastic. Apply SCEA to the one you want to go to most, after discussing it with your parents.</p>
<p>Princeton has a stronger preference for legacies than Yale. For the class of 2017, Princeton accepted 29.8% of legacy applicants. If @jhenry11 does not apply to Princeton early, he will lose most of that advantage. He will not have the same legacy preference admission rate at Yale as JHS suggested (they do not even have a rate this high for their own legacies).</p>
<p>FWIW, for the class of 2018 at Harvard, a survey of which 70% of the class responded found that 16% of the class were direct legacies. Furthermore, 25% of the respondents said they had an immediate or extended family member that attended the institution. It seems that nepotism is alive and well! (jk)</p>
<p>^^ Actually 27% not 25% of the respondents of the Harvard survey reported that they had a family member attend Harvard. In a similar survey done by Yale where 46% of the class responded, 11% of the class claimed to be a primary legacy. </p>
<p>All this is a long way of saying it would appear the smarter strategy would be for OP to apply SCEA to Princeton where his legacy status would be of greatest benefit and he would presumably would get two bites at the apple (especially since they deferred almost everyone last year who wasn’t admitted early). He could then apply apply RD to Yale and hope for the best as well. @JHS is no doubt correct that OP has all the environmental and inherited advantages that would make him a strong candidate for Yale as well.</p>
<p>The fact that Princeton accepted 29.8% of legacy applicants can’t be compared to the percentage of legacies actually attending Harvard or Yale–it’s not the same statistic.</p>
<p>^^ I know. I wasn’t making that comparison. The number of legacies attending Princeton is 12.3%. I was just commenting that apparently the number of legacies running around Harvard is quite a bit higher than Yale (or Princeton for that matter). It says nothing about what the legacy acceptance rates at any of the schools are though.</p>
<p>With OP’s superior stats, EC’s and legacy status at Princeton, he/she will have a better that 30% chance of being accepted early at Princeton. He/she will also have a strong chance at Yale SCEA (hard to quantify though) because @JHS is right that HYP do tend to admit each other’s legacies but it’s not like it was even ten years ago.</p>
<p>If your application is as good as you are making it sound, you stand a pretty good chance at either school SCEA, and I would just pick the one I like more… so Yale </p>
<p>All of us who have been actively involved in this process as alumni interviewers have seen outstanding Yale legacy candidates turned down and accepted by one or more of the other HYPS schools. We shake our heads at how a kid qualified for admission to the other schools got turned down with a direct Yale legacy. I have no doubt interviewers for HPS have similar stories. JHS is spot on that your background and genetic material will give you an admissions advantage at any of the above mentioned schools. Assuming your parents are on board for your calling the application process quits should you get a singing bulldog in December, I would do Yale SCEA should that be your preferred school. Finishing the process on December 15 is a beautiful thing.</p>
<p>I know. That December singing Bulldog is a wonderful sight to behold!!</p>
<p>My son wanted to see the results in private, so he went to his room to get what he thought would likely be a deferral or outright rejection. I didn’t hear the Bulldog from the kitchen, but it sounded as though he came downstairs without touching a step, so I figured it out before I saw his beaming face. </p>
<p>An early acceptance is priceless. </p>
<p>I know. That December singing Bulldog is a wonderful sight to behold!!</p>