<p>I went to Cornell, but never contributed a time.</p>
<p>If my son applies to Cornell, will he still have some sort of advantage as a legacy, or will his dad be considered a deadbeat?</p>
<p>Or is it that unless you contribute big money, it doesn't really matter, and he will still count as a legacy.</p>
<p>He’ll count as a legacy. Being a legacy is not, by itself, enough to win him admission. Even though it is true that legacies are overrepresented in the undergraduate class at my Ivy alma mater, it is also true that most children of alumni who apply are rejected.</p>
<p>Being a legacy confers a small advantage. If you had thought ahead and become a captain of industry, and then hinted that you might build a new lab building for the chemistry department, that would have conferred a big advantage.</p>
<p>I never understood why legacies get an advantage… ?</p>