Legacies

<p>Some institutions do consider graduate school connections in their legacy programs.</p>

<p>I think there is a great deal of variation. Harvard has a reputation for weighing legacy status more heavily than Yale, for example. If you look at the schools with the highest percentage of alumni making donations, I think you will find many of them are among the friendliest to legacies. Legacy friendliness is part of an overall program at these schools to keep that percentage high. It isn't that they benefit from the extra $100 donations so much as being able to say they are in the top 10 nationally in percentage of alumni donors (ie satisfied customers) as part of pitches to foundations and other large funding sources.</p>

<p>Also, it really depends on if the school has ED and whether or not you take advantage of that. Upon further reflection, though I still don't believe that I would have been admitted, my legacy status at Princeton probably dwindled down to only a very minor push factor when I did not apply ED. This was the right decision for me, but it probably hurt my chances. Another thing to consider.</p>

<p>It depends on the school and the applicant's family. Some schools don't really care about legacy. Here in Maryland, they'd have to accept the majority of applicants at UMD, so legacy doesn't help. (This is hard for parents who went when one could get into UMD with a 2.0 from our county high schools. Those were the days!). </p>

<p>If a school does consider legacy, it probably helps if the alum parent has contributed consistently and stayed connected in some way. I doubt it helps a lot if there was no connection until the child applied.</p>

<p>Anecdotally, my D was admitted to WFU legacy (she was qualified in her own right, as well). On the other hand, the child of a very involved Duke alum was rejected by Duke, as well as the other parent's school. Ironically, I think the student was accepted everywhere EXCEPT the legacies! </p>

<p>I think if you are qualified, legacy can push you from waitlist to admit, but again it depends on the school. I've read Princeton is really moving away from the legacy thing, upsetting many a parent who has contributed! </p>

<p>And wealthy alum who give $$$ will always have the ear of the admissions office! How do you think they build those endowments, anyway?</p>

<p>someone just said uncles and grads and i have a quick question</p>

<p>my grandfather went to georgetown for his MBA
my uncle went to NYU for his MBA
my great uncle went to wesleyan for undergrad and yale for law
my other great uncle went to harvard for undergrad and for his MBA</p>

<p>they're all very succesful and i imagine the last 2, especially the last one, donate a good amount of money. the harvard uncle got an executive job at a major 500 household name company the day he graduated, and no dount harvard helped him, so i'm sure he's fond.. hasn't left that company since.. was also a star football player there (they made football cards w/ him on it).</p>

<p>anyway, i've disregarded these as any sort of boost, but now i'm thinking about the last one. he would write me a letter of rec.. but i don't know if it would have any weight. plus, NOBODY in our family talks about money or assets w/ anybody, even other family members, and they all live well below their means, so i don't know how much anybody has given (but they're all very involved in charities, and donating, esp. to educatinal causes). would it help in any way? how much would he have to donate if i had 2300+ SAT's, high school diploma at 16 and then 2 extra years and extremely rigorous Harvard feeder school (Exeter), 1-2 varsity/jv sports, and starting my own social service orginization, etc. What would count ($$)?</p>