Legacy Hook

<p>Can you believe this two, Yaledad. In a fight on your thread! Hey, guys, take it elsewhere.</p>

<p>*Do you have a link to support that claim? It is my impression that the Yale yield rate actually declined a hair for 2008, to 66.6% (1,958 admits, and 1,305 matriculants.)</p>

<p>At Stanford, the yield rate for the Class of 2008 was 66.98% (1665 matriculants from 2,486 admits.)*</p>

<p>Byerly, for the record, the numbers you've spouted were wrong again on both counts. Yale's final yield was higher than Stanford's for 2004-05. You've said on many boards (not just this one) that Stanford's was higher than Yale's. But these are the final numbers (Yale 67%, Stanford 66%).</p>

<p>YALE
2004-05
1958 accepted
1308 matriculated (8 accepted off the waiting list)
66.8% yield</p>

<p>STANFORD
2004-05
2486 accepted
1648 matriculated (56 accepted off the waiting list)
66.3% yield</p>

<p>References:
<a href="http://www.yale.edu/asc/newsletter/fall_2004.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/asc/newsletter/fall_2004.pdf&lt;/a> (page 3)
<a href="http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>By moving from Early Decision to Early Action, Stanford's yield fell by 4 points (70% to 66%), whereas Yale's fell by 0 points (67% under both plans).</p>

<p>YALE
2004-05
1958 accepted
1308 matriculated (8 off the waiting list)
66.8%</p>

<p>2003-04
2014 accepted
1353 matriculated (0 off the waiting list)
67.2%</p>

<p>STANFORD
2004-05
2486 accepted
1648 matriculated (56 off the waiting list)
66.3%</p>

<p>2003-04
2343 accepted
1640 matriculated (95 off the waiting list)
70.0%</p>

<p>You can also see that Stanford regularly goes to its waiting list to improve its yield (close to 100% yield on those deciding to remain on the waitlist).</p>

<p>Just curious about something. When I applied many years ago, I was interviewed by an alum and by an admissions officer. It was my impression that the latter was quite important, and the former much less so. Unless I have misinterpreted the information on the Yale admissions website, interviews with admissions staff are no longer required. However, if the applicant desires to be interviewed by the admissions office, is it possible to obtain such an interview?
Thank you for any information you can impart on this subject.</p>

<p>Admissions office interviews are limited and conducted only by current Yale students.</p>

<p>Unless your name is Rory Gilmore.</p>

<p>Detailed data/info here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28424%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28424&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Nice article! It's the little confidence boost that will keep me sane for the next 48 hours.</p>

<p>Although it's clear that legacy applicants have a certain edge in the process, to me it is even more striking that 70% of them do not get in.</p>

<p>Just what constitutes a "legacy?"</p>

<p>My D was accepted EA to Y. Her deceased grandfather and great-grandfather were both Y grads and were listed on her application. Obviously, neither is a current contributor to Y.</p>

<p>Does that make her a "legacy?"</p>

<p>(She also has a 4.0 unweighted and a 35 ACT, with good ECs and Reccs. I don't remember her SATs.)</p>

<p>UMDAD I would consider her a legacy. Had her grandfather been alive at this time of her app, she would have been, so I don't think she would have ceased to be one upon his death. My s has a similar situation, however his gf is still living and I consider him to be a legacy. Unfortunately he was deferred. Congrats to you and your daughter. We're still hoping for April.</p>

<p>Andi, does Yale consider kids as legacies if their grandparents graduated from there? I don't remember their specific criterion, but many colleges will only put kids in the legacy pool if it is the mother or father who graduated from the undergraduate college. Grad and professional programs often don't count, nor do any other relatives. </p>

<p>Fingers crossed for your son in April, Andi.</p>

<p>YaleDad, I got an interview with an admin officer because i'm from new haven and so it was easier to get one there. also, there isn't a local alum council in my boarding school area. it went alright, i don't feel that it really affected my admissions decision.</p>

<p>Also, I've heard that legacies actually have higher scores and GPAs than non-legacies. Ah-hah. From this Yale Daily News article:</p>

<p><i>Yale President Richard Levin also said legacies may have an advantage in the application process. But he noted that the average grades and test scores of admitted legacies are higher than the average grades and test scores of the rest of the class. And once they get to Yale, Levin said, legacies also tend to get higher grades than non-legacy students with comparable high school GPAs and test scores.</i></p>

<p>The article is interesting, here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28424%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28424&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That is a typical circumlocution.</p>

<p>What difference does it make that "legacies actually have higher scores and GPAs than non-legacies?"</p>

<p>Irrelevant.</p>

<p>The issue is whether - stat for stat - they are admitted AT A HIGHER RATE!</p>

<p>And they are.</p>

<p>Schools are not going to discriminate against legacies by holding them to a higher standard. They are, without a doubt, held to a lower standard.</p>

<p>hi jamimom,
well I guess I shouldn't assume that these questions necessarily indicate that an applicant is put into the legacy pool or not but there are two separate places on the application that ask about relatives who have attended Yale. One place requests names of a parent or grandparent who attended and then later there is another question about any relatives other than parent or grandparent who attended. They also ask for the name and graduating class of each relative.
Thanks for the good wishes :)</p>

<p>I'll be curious to see how the legacy issue plays out at our hs in April. There are a number of kids from our hs who have applied RD and that includes 4 who are legacy deferrees. All four deferrees are legacies. (no one was accepted early)</p>

<p>Andi, that does not necessarily mean a "yes" will put the applicant in the legacy pool. Sometimes that is just to see to whom the student is connected. </p>

<p>Byerly, if any given group of applicant have higher academic stats (which, yes, do count heavily in consideration for admissions), and have a more impressive resume which Levin seems to indicate is the case for legacies, something that is more difficult to measure, that group should have a higher acceptance rate. If it did not, something would be wrong. If indeed that situation is the case for legacies--higher academic stats AND more impressive resumes, and the accept rate is equal or lower than that of the applicant pool, then some adverse selection would be in effect. In order for legacies to be having preferance in acceptance, then they must be below the rest of the Yale pool of applicants in either stats or resumes.</p>

<p>that's funny. All this time I've been thinking that s is a legacy. You're not saying that 'some' grandchildren are and some not, depending on who the grandparent is, are you?</p>

<p>Let Yale, Pton and Harvard release their figures for legacies of all three schools when they apply. I bet it will show, for example, that Yale legacies are admitted to Harvard at almost the same rate as H legacies, and vice versa. Why? Because these kids have had all the advantages one can have. Of course they will be admitted at a higher rate (and deserve to be). Basically, this legacy preference is a scam to get contributions from gullible parents.</p>

<p>I just want to make a comment about the question of putting where your parents went to school on the application.
If an application asks for this information, then leaving it out is an ommission that will be noted. You don't want to do that - it's evasive, and will seem so.
If it helps, my D, who is a soph, put down her dad's school, Princeton, as well as my own UC, and it didn't hurt her as an RD applicant. Honesty really is the only way to go, folks. I doubt that they sat and thought, "oh, she probably applied to Princeton - better not take her." That's silly.</p>

<p>Also, Yaledad - my D had an interview at Yale with a current grad working with admissions. Don't know if it made any difference, but it satisfied us that we were giving the school the information that D was very serious about the school, to the point of coming from Ca to interview during the fall of senior year. (She wanted another look to see if she wanted to apply Ed at the time, which she decided against)
So on campus interviews were possible two years ago. I would certainly inquire.</p>

<p>Byerly, what is your take on this question of what makes a legacy? Parent, grandparent etc?</p>