<p>I'm posting this because I wonder if it will make anyone to reconsider their understanding about the influence of legacy in Ivy League admissions.</p>
<p>Both my parents graduated from Harvard College, as did two of my grandparents. However, none of them donated more than $50 in a year.</p>
<p>I have a 2390 SAT (790 W) and about about a 3.90 UW GPA in rigorous courses at a top high school. I have quite a few extracurriculars (significant positions in student government, president of mock trial team, substantial biology research internship which involved presenting to several professional scientific audiences and writing a soon-to-be published research paper.) </p>
<p>I was admitted to several selective colleges like Amherst and Pomona, but I was wait-listed at Harvard. Does this surprise anyone? I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts.</p>
<p>Although the blog is about Yale, it could also be about any Ivy League school. </p>
<p>“Jeffrey B. Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale University made the case that legacy preference at Yale College is diminishing and what remains is grounded in financial reality.”</p>
<p>“We turn away 80 percent of our legacies, and we feel it every day,” Mr. Brenzel said, adding that he rejected more offspring of the school’s Sterling donors than he accepted this year (Sterling donors are among the most generous contributors to Yale)."</p>
<p>my sister applied to Harvard a couple years ago and was a triple legacy and got a very important alum to write a letter of rec and she still only got waitlisted</p>
<p>I don’t really remember because it was like 2 years ago but I think she got into Dartmouth and she goes to UPenn now and I don’t really remember the rest</p>
<p>Interesting! My d was accepted, is a legacy (her mom) and she only gave $ to the athletic team she played for…gave a few times to the college. My d was rejected ED from Amherst. I have several friends whose kids applied to Harvard and were not accepted…it seems to be quite a rarity among my peers. The legacy thing really is not all its chocked up to be.</p>
<p>I ended up not staying on the wait-list. I was partially influenced, ironically, by the fact that my parents had negative experiences at Harvard.</p>
<p>I visited all of my top choices (namely Amherst, Pomona, Berkeley, and Duke, where I was admitted off the wait-list). I eventually ruled out Amherst and Pomona because, while they are lovely, I felt that a liberal arts college wasn’t for me. I though’t I’d fit in better at Berkeley than at Duke, and I wouldn’t mind saving 100 thousand dollars, so I’m headed to Cal in the fall.</p>
<p>I have heard that if you are a legacy , you are not rejected but waitlisted . I have known several legacies who were waitlisted , but no one who was rejected outright .</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, we have friends who are Harvard alums, the two of them. They were regularly involved with the University and were regular donors. They specifically told us that they had “upped” their donations in the “application anticipation years” so that ultimately they had given about $50K to Harvard by the time their kid applied, about half of that in the most recent years.</p>
<p>Their kid eventually attended a university (think “U Chicago” in terms of academics) so that tells me they were well qualified in terms of scores and grades, but their kid was still rejected by Harvard. And I quote them when they talked about having upped those recent donations, “we figured they were either the best donations we ever made, or the last.” It turned out to be the latter. But now, they’re off the hook for the rest of their lives. When those annual giving letters come … into the trash.</p>
<p>Interesting about the legacy “wait list” policy … I heard the kid applied EA and was deferred, then rejected.</p>