It is possible or likely that some colleges boost legacies regardless of wealth – but legacies, all of whom have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree, are more likely to be economically advantaged than the general college bound student population, so boosting legacies has the effect of tipping the admit class toward wealthier students. Legacies of elite college parents are even more likely to be economically advantaged, since elite colleges often feed into high paying college-prestige-conscious jobs (management consulting, Wall Street).
The SFFA analysis separates the legacy hook from the Dean’s and Director’s special interest list hook. The latter includes students related to donors and students who have special wealthy/connected parents, among many other possibilities. There is a good amount of overlap between the two hook groups, with many appearing on both the legacy hook and the special interest list hook lists. For students who appeared on both lists, the combined hook effect was stronger than for students who appeared on either list alone. However, legacy alone without being on the special interest still appeared to be a strong hook.
You can also get some sense of how much variation there is in hook strength by looking at the standard error of the regression coefficient, which is listed in parenthesis below. The special interest list hook and faculty/staff kid hooks have a relative high standard error compared to the magnitude, suggesting there is a good variation of hook strength for different applicants. However, the legacy hook had a small fraction of the standard error, suggesting a more consistent hook strength. If the legacy hook was only applied to wealthy legacies, I’d expect a much higher standard error.
Special Interest List: +3.2 (0.42)
Faculty/Staff Kid: +2.6 (0.35)
Legacy: +2.3 (0.16)
Hispanic: +2.0 (0.09)
High Academic Rating*: +1.9 (0.13)
Applies Early: +1.5 (0.10)
Disadvantaged: +1.5 (0.14)
*Reader handbook describes an academic rating increasing from 3 to 2 as improving from a “very good” student to an "excellent’ student combined with a ~100-200 point increase in SAT score .
Rather than only favoring legacies who are wealthy, I think a more likely possibility is that a need blind HYPS… type college might use legacy as a proxy for wealthy. Being need blind, they are limited in looking at income directly. However, favoring legacies could be an alternative way of insuring there are enough full pay >$250k income kids to more easily compensate for the generous FA, among other benefits.
In the end, for those kids who have worked so very hard and yet have less than a minuscule chance at T20, we need to remind them that “life is not fair”. It just isn’t. Realize it, get over it, move on. Admittedly, this comes from a low income single parent whose kids didn’t have the opportunities that wealth can buy but have a better work ethic and sense of morality than most, if not almost all, kids I’ve met. My kids and I have never taken issue with those who have more, great for them!, it just wasn’t in the cards for us so you make up for it with hard work and other free social advantages. You don’t have to go to a T20 or elite preschool or play a travel sport to become a successful, productive person in society, but you do have to have ambition, ethics, and a good head on your shoulders and those are free.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread as it has simply devolved into a debate with many of same users arguing the same points that they have rehashed on numerous threads.