Legacy chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>My dad, grandfather, great-uncle, great-aunt, and a few cousins went to Penn.
Stats: Weighted GPA: 3.94
SAT: 680 CR, 620 M, 730 W
SAT2: Terrible. Might retake.
AP's: European History 3, US History 4, Environmental Science 3, English Language 5
Senior year course load: AP Stats, AP Calc AB, AP Gov, AP Econ, Mandarin, marching band, and student gov/leadership
Job(s): Tennis instructor at local club, page at local public library, Little League Umpire and Softball Umpire Coordinator for 2 years
Extracurriculars: Co-president of Jefferson Awards club, Treasurer of American Red Cross club, sports liaison and spirit store manager, student ambassador, 4 years varsity tennis, current #1 singles, basketball and softball 2 years, marching band 4 years
Service: President's Volunteer Service Award Bronze, Silver, and Gold; Jefferson Award; over 115+ service hours for the past 3 years through National Charity League; a member of the senior citizens band at local senior center; head intern at the Harvest Garden, whose yielded produce goes to shelters; AYSO referee.
High School: Very diverse, socioeconomic wise. Wide range of students, about 1-3 go to an Ivy and Stanford each year. </p>

<p>Will my legacy status be enough to get me in? My GPA and scores could be better, but my extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations should help...right? I really want to go to Penn but am extremely worried that I won't get in, even if I apply ED. Which I will.</p>

2

<p>The best combination to get into Penn is doing ED AND having legacy status. If you were to apply that way, your chances would be much greater than RD, where legacy plays less of a role (was told by an admissions officer this summer). </p>

<p>However, if you do choose to go with the ED route, make sure that you are absolutely sure that you want to attend the school. I have legacy at Penn too, but i didn’t like the school enough to do ED and boost my chances, but that’s a risk i’m willing to take.</p>

3

<p>You still are not quite there for legacy, IMO. Yes, you only have a boost with legacy at ED, so go ahead, but honestly, even the legacies I know were not accepted with those test scores. They needed an additonal hook.</p>

4

<p>^Agreed. Legacy status is really only substantial these days if your family is really well connected or consistently donates a lot of money to the school.</p>

5

<p>

Sorry, but that’s just not correct. Don’t confuse legacy status with what’s called a “developmental” admit. As a fairly active alum who’s also had a kid go through the Penn admissions process fairly recently, I’ve attended lots of alumni events with Dean Furda and President Gutmann. Both have made clear on several occasions that the consideration of legacy status in admissions decisions is still alive and well, but ONLY during the Early Decision round (I’ve heard President Gutmann explicitly emphasize this point). They also make clear the longstanding Penn policy that legacy status is based solely on whether the applicant has at least one–and there’s no enhancement if there are more than one–Penn alum among his/her parents or grandparents. And beyond that, the donation history of that alum, or how “well connected” he or she is, are NOT considered with respect to the legacy status of the applicant. In other words, it’s a simple binary question: does the applicant have a parent or grandparent who graduated from Penn? If yes, he/she is a legacy. If no, he/she is not. And no further inquiry is made by the Admissions Office (i.e., no checking of donation records, etc.). However, it ALSO has been emphasized for quite a while, now, that the legacy “bump” during ED is not a huge one. That is, it can make a difference all else being equal, but it will NOT make up for deficiencies that would otherwise make an applicant less competitive. In fact, when Penn last released the numbers several years ago, the legacy acceptance rate during the ED round was only about 5-10 points higher than the overall ED admit rate, and the RD admit rate for legacies was the same as the overall RD admit rate. Put another way, Penn used to point out that more than 60% of legacy applicants were rejected every year, and that was when the overall acceptance rate was closer to 20% and the ED acceptance rate was closer to 30%.</p>

<p>A “developmental” admit, on the other hand, is an applicant whose family has made substantial donations to Penn (or any other top school to which such a student might apply, since all of the top schools have “developmental” admits), or is otherwise in a position to provide a significant advantage to the school (i.e., well connected). It shouldn’t be confused with “legacy” admissions, which don’t require anything other than the relevant alumni family connection.</p>

6

<p>Just to add for the OP, however: even though your status as a “legacy” applicant will not be enhanced by the Penn alumni relatives beyond your father and grandfather, mentioning them in your essay could be helpful to show the breadth and depth of your familiarity with–and fondness for–Penn. Assuming that you can work that into your essay in a way that makes sense, of course. :wink: Anything to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other applicants.</p>

7

<p>Agree with that. My brother went to Penn, and I was able to note that I loved the campus and mention several activities I had attended before applying.</p>

<p>My 2015 son is a double legacy at Penn and his stats are near yours but he is being recruited for sports as well. Your SAT seems a little low without some kind of extra bump.</p>

<p>As for SAT2 being “terrible” do you mean under 700 or under 600? Yes, you should retake them if they are below 700, but make sure you are prepared. One issue my son had with the SAT2 is that the online study materials from the College Board, with sample exams, were worse than useless, it pointed his studying in the wrong direction. We will buy books in the future for each of his tests.</p>

<p>And as others said, you MUST apply ED if you want a bonus from being a legacy. The admissions representatives at our local Penn Club legacy admissions assistance meeting (you should go to one in your area if you can) said that the thought is if you are a legacy, but you DON’T have Penn as your first choice, then you go into the pool with everyone else. It’s a good strategy in my mind, because if the legacy is someone they would admit anyway, nothing is lost, but if they are borderline, they lose that push of wanting Penn more than any other school.</p>

<p>Donating a lot of money has nothing to do with being a legacy, unless your family actually sponsored a building. </p>

<p>One good thing to note - although the admissions folks said that ED at Penn is binding, there are other schools who you can apply to ED (or rolling admission) that are NOT binding, so that you will have a boost by applying early but if Penn accepts you, you will go there even if others accept you. You may have to do some research; we likely will be looking at the same thing.</p>

<p>People <em>do</em> get admitted who don’t have perfect scores, so getting help on your essay, making sure to attend the alumni interview (refusing one can count against you from what I understand, unless you have a good reason because they have Skype interviews available), and doing your best on the app will be your best strategy.</p>

8

<p>apply regular</p>

9

<p>Applying ED is your best chances. Your SATs are in range but at the low end of the range. Use legacy to your advantage in the ED round. You gain no boost from it in RD.</p>

10

<p>I personally think you will be rejected even with your legacy status. I think the legacy advantage is inflated considering that legacies tend to have really good stats and many probably would have got in without the legacy advantage. Your GPA and test scores are low and your ECs and awards are pretty cookie cutter. As a legacy, many admission officers will see you as priviledged and they may have higher expectations for you. Then they will see you incredibly subpar accomplishments and will probably be turned off.</p>

11

<p>The last post is pretty harsh. </p>

<p>The stats are all on the low end of the average accepted student but not completely out of range. I’d say its a high reach and legacy status plus strong essays communicating passion and depth and strong recommendations could put Penn in the reach column. The only way this can happen is in the early decision phase. I say go for it.</p>