<p>
[quote]
A lot of my interviewers and some adults I know have said that they wouldn't get into their alma maters if they were applying today.
[/quote]
When the guy from Princeton said that, I said "well aren't you lucky then."</p>
<p>I think I'm in...</p>
<p>Yeah, she should definitely put that her parents are Yalies on her application. It would look very odd if she didn't. I tried being modest about a few things on my application, and I think that it just ended up hurting me - she should really do her best to promote herself. I know it's hard. If she's curious about everything about applying as a legacy (including fending off accusations that she only got in because she's a legacy, boy isn't that fun), most definitely drop me a note!</p>
<p>And about the qualifications of applicants - any college counselor or adcom will readily admit that each sucessive class is the best-qualified one they've ever seen. it's only harder from here.</p>
<p>i'm a 5th-generation legacy with a 1520 SAT and a 4.0 uw gpa. i've been figure skating since i was 5, and have been playing varsity level sports at my high school since sophomore year. i've coached soccer, am a peer advisor (big deal at my school - nearly whole class applies, 8 accepted), have done a fair amount of community service, started an astronomy club, etc. etc. i had very good recs and strong essays.</p>
<p>i applied ea and was deferred.</p>
<p>my point: legacy doesn't mean everything. not even close. with a college as selective as yale, there is little rhyme or reason to the admissions decisions they make. all you can do is submit the best application you can and cross your fingers.</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>That's disheartening to hear! I hope you get in RD! I'm a first-generation legacy so hearing that makes me nervous.</p>
<p>In your case legacy doesn't mean anything----probably because your family hasn't made the big donations. If they did, I assure, with your credentials, you would not have been deffered.</p>
<p>hi kara17 I totally agree with you-- check out my earlier post about my s. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you in the RD round.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In your case legacy doesn't mean anything----probably because your family hasn't made the big donations.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't think it's true that legacy doesn't mean anything in the absence of large donations, but it certainly doesn't mean everything.</p>
<p>I'd be very careful about assuming that anyone is automatically "in" because of a legacy (sometimes even when the family has made quite substantial donations).</p>
<p>If you read my post carefully--it said--"with your credentials"--meaning this person is qualified to go to Yale.</p>
<p>I totally agree that she's qualified, but Yale has too many well-qualified applicants, both legacy and non, to accept them all (though I strongly suspect that Kara17 will be admitted RD--her qualifications are indeed excellent, and there aren't that many 5th generation legacies).</p>
<p>Yale would have accepted her (Given her impressive credentials) if legacy means anything. Legacy preference is a scam to raise money, probably not only at Yale.</p>
<p>Yale hasn't rejected her, mensa. She will probably get in regular decision. The credentials of accepted legacies are slightly weaker than accepted non-legacies, and again, Yale's acceptance rate for legacies is 30%, versus 9% for everyone else. All evidence points to legacy preference existing, for better or for worse.</p>
<p>Perhaps not, Yale.edu. I would speculate that kids who parents went to Harvard, Princeton Columbia etc are admitted to Yale fairly close to rate of Yale legacies, and certainly not at 9%.</p>
<p>But... you have nothing to back up that speculation, and it isn't really based on logic. There are simply far too many HYP+Ivy legacy children applying to Yale to accept them all at a 30% clip! If I may also speculate, it seems to me that would more than fill up the Yale class with no room for anyone else.</p>
<p>The logic is that due to virtually identical demographics, Ivy offspring are going to be highly qualified. Lets say 10% of a typical yale class is Yale legacies, which would mean that 433 applied. If I estimate that 100 from harvard and 100 from p applied, that would only be an additional 60 places. Make it 200 each, thats 120 places. That still leaves over 1000 places for the great unwashed.</p>
<p>Ahhh, but that logic of your first sentence was already disproven in this thread. With identical scores to their parents, Yale legacies would be quite underqualified as a group. Their parents' and grandparents' SAT scores averaged in the 1200s and 1300s, not quite competitive with today's standards. </p>
<p>And as for your statistics, about 180 Yale legacies enroll each year, meaning 540 applied. Estimating that 300 legacies each from Harvard, Princeton, and (you included) Columbia applied, that brings the number of applications to 1440. 30% of that is 432 accepted and 67% HPC yield brings us to 361 places taken by HYP+C legacies and only 939 places for everyone else (including Stanford and MIT legacies, etc.) Throw the other Ivies plus Stanford, MIT, etc. and you have a majority of the class filled with offspring of these schools. That's not the case at Yale or any of these universities.</p>
<p>I was not comparing children to parents. What I meant was that as a group the children of H Y or P grads will have identical stats with each other. </p>
<p>You also overlook the biggest reason HYP are harder to get in now. I doubt that their kids are smarter on average than their parents. Are you unfamiliar with the concept of regression to the mean? The real reason is that until about 1970 they were all-male. Although class size has increased somewhat, it's not enough to compensate for the fact that the eligible applicant pool has doubled.</p>
<p>Let me ask a question on the flip side of legacy. Most would agree that a student who is first in her family to attend college may have a slight admissions advantage. Are the most disadvantaged, applications-wise, the students whose parents attended just an average college? Do the adcoms really look at where parents attend school? Should you leave it out?</p>
<p>Are the most disadvantaged, applications-wise, the students whose parents attended just an average college?</p>
<p>The most disadvantaged are the students whose parents attended a four-year college that isn't the college the student is applying to. Having parents who didn't go to college or even who attended a two-year community college is probably just as good as having parents who went to Yale (or wherever they are applying).</p>
<p>I was not comparing children to parents. What I meant was that as a group the children of H Y or P grads will have identical stats with each other.</p>
<p>OK, I agree. But you are also assuming they will be accepted at the same rate, which is not true. 30% at Yale for Y legacies, probably half of that (~15%) at Yale for Harvard or Stanford or Princeton legacies, IMHO.</p>
<p>In fact, I think almost the opposite of what you are suggesting is true for Regular Decision. If you are a Harvard or Stanford legacy and applied to Yale regular decision, Yale might assume you applied to your parents' alma mater Early Action, and then would almost certainly reject you no matter what your stats are.</p>
<p>And the same would be true if you are applying to Harvard or Stanford regular decision and your parents went to Yale. They are going to assume you applied Early Action to Yale and reject you at a much higher rate than average, despite all your qualifications.</p>