<p>Does not applying ED if you are a legacy at a college hurt an applicant's chances?</p>
<p>I have a daughter who is averagely qualified, trying to decide between ED at Northwestern or Brown. She has no hook at Northwestern and a tiny hook of: parent double legacy and a total of 4 degrees (2 BA's, one MD, one PhD, and 6 years of adjunct teaching at Brown) at Brown. </p>
<p>We want to figure out whether it decreases the power of the legacy hook NOT to apply ED to Brown, as she loves both schools. My sense it that it does, but we want her to make the decision with as much information as is possible in this maelstrom of college nuttiness.</p>
<p>This may be an impossible question to weigh in on...</p>
<p>Brown is not like University of Pennsylvania, which openly says that legacies should apply ED to get a boost in admissions. The official line from admissions is that it doesn’t matter. I’ve known legacies who got accepted and and got rejected in all scenarios. Despite what admissions says, my gut tells me it does help to apply ED.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how to parse your description, “averagely qualified.” What legacy will not do is get a subpar student accepted – legacy helps if the student has taken a rigorous curriculum, has gotten top grades, scored over 700 on SATs and has solid ECs. There’s no legacy boost for a kid who has a B average, for example. </p>
<p>I haven’t looked at ED acceptance rates for Northwestern in a few years; my guess is that the NW rate is higher than Brown’s, and that Brown’s legacy acceptance rate probably brings it closer to the NW ED acceptance rate --although she’s a double legacy, so that’s an even stronger connection. Statistically, it’s probably a wash.</p>
<p>“averagely qualified” = rejection at either Brown or Northwestern. Legacy doesn’t matter for average. It matters if you are on the very knife edge, or as Harvard says, “a feather on the scale.”</p>
<p>Unless: big, big donor. Brown trails the Ivy field in endowment. Do you have few millions to spare?</p>
<p>IMO, absolutely, particularly if its a meets-full-need school. Even more so, if the student is just 'averagely qualified."</p>
<p>Think about it: by not applying Early to a highly selective college where you are a (double) legacy, you are essentially telling the Adcom that it ain’t your first choice. Psychologically, that has to be a negative, however small.</p>
<p>I think it is the case with most schools when it comes to legacy and ED/EA - use it or lose it. If you ever ask at an infor session about it, they will tell you, “ED applicants are self selecting, that’s why the admittance rate is higher. Whether you are a legacy or not, you should only apply ED if we are your #1 choice. If you are not sure then you should wait.” This is like asking, “do students get admitted for development reasons?” To be double legacy at college is a pretty big deal especially if you and your spouse have been active, and this is not just all about giving money.</p>
<p>I don’t have any knowledge of or comparisons to Brown. But for NU (please don’t call it NW!), based on anecdata alone from my set of alum friends, all I can say is that a double legacy who is interested in NU who doesn’t play that card in early decision is a fool. I believe the NU legacy acceptance rate is about double the regular decision rate, and the ED rate is about double the regular decision rate (though of course those aren’t additive).</p>
<p>I guess you did not take advantage of the free services offered by ACAP. But they do say to call for discussion of legacy admission statistics, so maybe they will have that info and the ED boost info you seek. Those are quite strong legacy ties!
[BAA</a> - Services: College Advising](<a href=“Benefits | Alumni & Friends | Brown University”>Benefits | Alumni & Friends | Brown University)</p>
<p>Maybe it doesn’t matter whether legacy status has more of an effect on ED vs. RD. It may be enough to know that it does have some effect, either way.</p>
<p>Your daughter might want to look at it this way:</p>
<p>If she applies ED to Brown, she has two advantages over an RD applicant with the same credentials. She is applying ED, which is a hook in itself, and she is a legacy.</p>
<p>If she applies ED to Northwestern, she only has the ED hook, not the legacy hook. But it’s a little easier to get in to Northwestern than it is to get in to Brown (the statistics on the College Board site say that Brown accepts 10% of applicants and Northwestern accepts 18%), so maybe that cancels out the lack of legacy status.</p>
<p>The important thing, as I see it, is that if she’s willing to apply ED and your family is willing to live with the financial consequences (not being able to compare financial aid packages from multiple colleges), applying ED to one of the two schools would be a good idea.</p>
<p>Is your kiddo considering applying to the legacy school ED because it is his top choice bar none? Or is he applying because he wants to take advantage of any legacy tip the school has?</p>
<p>P.s. I wouldn’t call ED a “hook”. It is a tipping factor. A hook would be something that would make the school absolutely accept this student.</p>
<p>At my 30th Brown reunion a bunch of people were comparing notes on our kids admissions, and the overwhelming conclusion (note- these are a bunch of anecdotes, not rigorously obtained statistics) was that legacy means nothing in and of itself, absent another very strong and compelling reason for Brown to admit your kid.</p>
<p>What are those reasons? mega donor (not me and my buddies with $500-$2500 per year to the alumni fund). Outstanding artistic achievement coupled with reasonable stats; famous parents (United States congressman, Oscar winning actor/director), faculty child.</p>
<p>The garden variety double legacy (mom is a lawyer, dad is a pediatrician; mom is a social worker, dad is minister, mom is a computer scientist, dad works at an ad agency) is going to get a second and serious look for sure, whether applying early or RD, but given the string of rejections that my classmates kids have had at Brown, I think the Adcom’s speak the truth when they say it’s a tip, not a hook. Tip- if your kid is on the margins- it can tip them in. Not: “average stats, average profile, double or triple legacy- sure, let’s take her”.</p>
<p>These “Brown rejects” ended up at Penn, Northwestern, Stanford, Georgetown, Chicago (plus some obviously less competitive schools) so I don’t think that all of them were grossly under-qualified.</p>
<p>There are those who will disagree (probably within the next five minutes), but I don’t think your ED school has to be your “top choice bar none.”</p>
<p>It simply has to be a school that you would be 100% satisfied with attending. </p>
<p>There might also be other schools out there that you would be 100% satisfied with attending, too. I don’t see this as a problem.</p>
<p>I agree with Marian. Imagine that this kid would really prefer to go to Harvard, but likes Brown almost as much. It really might make sense from a strategic point of view to apply ED to Brown to take full advantage of the double legacy. On the other hand, if NU is the real top choice, it might make sense to apply ED there–after all, that tells NU it’s the top choice, despite being a double legacy at Brown.</p>
<p>All depends on what the parent means by the reference to the kids stats. If this kid is in the bottom quartile of applicants for Brown- legacy won’t help, barring any of the hooks I mentioned earlier (or stellar athlete… forgot to throw that in.) But since that kid’s not getting into Harvard anyway Hunt- no harm no foul.</p>
<p>The only harm/foul would be in wasting the early application. I don’t think a kid should use exclusive ED or SCEA if there is really no hope of admission.</p>
<p>I agree with most of what has been said here, and would add that I have seen a number of legacy kids admitted RD after being deferred ED. Of course, I have also seen such kids (including my own) rejected RD after being deferred.</p>
<p>Regardless of what a college says its policy is, if a legacy kid at an ED college does not apply early, it effectively says that he or she doesn’t want to be “trapped” by the legacy, and that pretty much forfeits any legacy advantage. That doesn’t mean the kid has no chance of admission RD, but I think it means that there won’t be any legacy advantage for him or her.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the thoughtful replies and directing me to the other thread on the Brown forum. I agree with Marian on the “100% satisfied” issue. I also agree that “hook” is too strong a word and “feather” is much better. Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic might also apply. No pun intended as this is all, of course, DEADLY serious. We did do ACAP and I have thought of asking them as well. In terms of parsing “average applicant” status, supercompetitive and homogeneous northeastern high school, 4.6 weighted GPA, 33 ACT’s, 700’s on SAT II’s, award winning dancer, and some community service abroad, experience working in an office administratively, and in a microbio lab during summers. She will be a happy girl anywhere she goes. I will be a happy adult after this is done.</p>