<p>so i have a lot of legacy at harvard (two aunts, uncle, grandfather, two great-uncles, great-grandfather, great-great grandfather, great-great-great grandfather, cousins etc.)</p>
<p>how much will this help my chances of admission (especially if they are prominent alumni - my great uncle taught at harvard and is on wikipedia's list of "most prominent harvard alumni" and all of my other relatives are very prominent alumni as well)?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>If your immediate parents weren't Harvard grads you aren't a legacy. In the old days they used to ask if anyone in the family went to Harvard, but I'm pretty sure there's only a slot for the parents and possibly siblings now. In general legacies are about twice as likely to be accepted - this year that would translate to a chance of about 15%.</p>
<p>where did you get that ratio mathmom? I heard it was like 40% a few years ago, which means it cannot be that much less than 30% nowadays.</p>
<p>I made it up. They generally don't admit to more than a two-fold advantage. Perhaps that's subtracting legacies who have other hooks, such as being athletes? The fact is there are no recent numbers on line. I think when it was 40% the overall admit rates for everyone was higher.</p>
<p>You should also look at the context of your school - last year I figured my son had a greater than 50% chance as approximately half the kids with similar SATs and GPAs had been getting in and presumably some of those weren't legacies.</p>
<p>This topic touches one of my larger pet-peeves on this board. Are you a 'legacy' by the Harvard-given technical definition of 'legacy' (the one used to compute statistics, etc)? No. This is true in the same way that it is true that students who are National Merit Scholarship Recipients are counted as students on 'Financial Aid' by Harvard, even though the school doesn't give them a red cent and the scholarship only applies for their freshman year.</p>
<p>Will this help you in your legacy admissions? Undoubtedly yes. I have asked a Harvard admissions officer about a situation almost identical to yours (no parents but legacy extends back to the 1690s, also not as prominent as your). She responded that (and I quote) 'of course we're going to take something like that into account.' She proceeded to tell me that legacy admissions can 'heal the sick' but not 'raise the dead,' and that the amount of healing a legacy can do varies proportionately to the weight of the legacy.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the 'legacy' nomer is irrelevant; you are not counted as a 'legacy student,' but your legacy is indeed going to be considered. How much it will be taken into account is anyone's guess. I knew a kid from a family with a freshman dorm named after them, As and some Bs, and a 1450 who got rejected, so it's far from a lock.</p>
<p>Note: the conversation quoted above took place my freshman year at a casual gathering with an admissions officer I was close with. It was not in a formal setting and both the question and answer came about naturally in the course of the discussion (nothing was misconstrued or forced). So it's not like I badgered some poor ad-officer at a meet and greet as a freshman :-)</p>
<p>LOL h-bomber. My cousin's wife used to work admissions at Harvard, I still haven't figured out how to have a casual conversation with her about what really goes on behind the scenes! I am sure you are right, all of the books I've read about admissions where you get a peek at how legacies are discussed by an admissions office makes it clear that it's not a numbers game, even if a statistic is generated at the back end. Each case is considered separately. My cousins were Harvard legacies and were rejected, but my brothers and I were all accepted. Presumably because we were better students and had some other things in our favor (international background thanks to my father's line of work.)</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I get the feeling that most of the legacies I know would have been accepted here anyways, but that's a biased sample since I don't know the ones that got rejected.</p>
<p>my dad went to harvard and he's told me that 40% of legacies get accepted. i cant verify how recent that data is, but it can't be too much lower than that assuming it was within the last few years</p>
<p>I should have checked the articles on line before I posted. There actually was an article last spring which quotes Fitzsimmons (Dean of Admissions). The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Low-SAT Legacies Receive Lower GPAs</p>
<p>
[quote]
At Harvard, SAT scores for Harvard legacy students are “virtually identical” to those of the rest of the student body, Harvard College Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said. He said that the admissions committee looks beyond SAT results in deciding whom to accept.</p>
<p>“There are always students from all types of backgrounds,” he said. “Test scores are only one of many criteria we use to admit people.”</p>
<p>Fitzsimmons said that legacies comprise about 12 to 13 percent of recent classes admitted to Harvard College. Their admission rate is between 34 and 35 percent, he said, in contrast to a rate of nine percent for the Class of 2011 as a whole.</p>
<p>According to Fitzsimmons, having a parent who graduated from Harvard or Radcliffe will tip the scale slightly in the admissions process. He added that legacy status is not the only factor explaining their higher success rate in admissions. Children of alumni often recognize the difficulty of gaining admission because of their parents’ familiarity with the University, and thus are “self-selecting,” he said.</p>
<p>“Many might decide based on this knowledge that they might choose not to apply unless they are particularly strong academically,” he said.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I find it rather interesting that while so many legacies are accepted quite a few must be choosing to go elsewhere.</p>
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<p>Mathmom, why do you conclude that many legacies are choosing to go elsewhere? If you're talking about the 34-35% versus the 12-13%, these are percentages of different things. The 34-35% is the admit rate for legacy applicants. The 12-13% is the percentage of the entering class comprised of legacies. If you figure there are about 30 non-legacy applicants (who are admitted at a rate of slightly below 9% given that 9% is the overall admit rate including legacy applicants) for every legacy applicant (who are admitted at a rate of 34-35%), then about 12% of the admittees will be legacies. I think they then choose to attend Harvard at roughly the same rates - i.e., about an 80% yield. If anything, I would guess the yield among legacy admits is higher than the overall yield, given their connections to the school.</p>
<p>Oops you're right. Didn't have my math hat on when I posted that. :o</p>
<p>Do you have a wing of the school named after you family? Hahahaha. Of course it's going to help. Legacy is everything</p>
<p>Here's a legacy that didn't get in (class of 2011):
SAT total: 2270
CR + M: 1470 (800 on writing)
ACT: 34
Strong EC's with leadership, passionate about one sport (state level involvement, varisty four years, captain); great summer programs and classes.
Cum laude graduate of super competitive independent day school in New England.
Both parents are Harvard grads!<br>
He was deferred EA, waitlisted, and ultimately rejected. </p>
<p>He's ecstatically happy at Rice!!!!!
Parents are unhappy with alma mater!!!!!</p>
<p>To the OP: No one has responded since my last post. I hope I didn't discourage you. You never know what they are looking for. Another legacy from my son's school with similar stats and EC's was accepted. Good luck; don't be discouraged by one person's experience. I hope you're accepted!</p>
<p>I would imagine another factor that ties into these legacies that were or weren't accepted would be teacher recommendations. I bet a bad or even average teacher rec can kill even a legacy, though this is merely speculation.</p>