<p>I like Stanford and Columbia. I'm taking a chance at early at either one, and the thing that would tip me toward Columbia is the significantly higher rate of acceptance coupled with my legacy or not status.</p>
<p>My father attended Columbia GSAS for his MA, MPhil, and PhD.</p>
<p>However, my legacy status is not clear. On Columbia's FAQ page, they say that they consider children of Columbia College or SEAS graduates to be legacies. Yet in the "list parents who went to columbia" section, they allow you to choose the graduate schools (which my parent attended). I've emailed the office for a clearer response...</p>
<p>Furthermore read the jargon on the page</p>
<p>
[quote]
We are always pleased to receive applications from students whose family members have graduated from Columbia. When an applicant is extremely competitive and compares favorably with other similarly talented candidates, being the daughter or son of a Columbia University graduate <a href="from%20any%20Columbia%20school%20or%20college">b</a>** may be a slight advantage in the admission process. This advantage may especially apply for “legacy” candidates.</p>
<p>Please note: applicants are considered to be “legacies” of Columbia only if they are the children of Columbia College or the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science graduates.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>"being the daughter or son of a Columbia University graduate (from any Columbia school or college) may be a slight advantage"</p>
<p>implies that in my situation I would gain that "slight advantage"</p>
<p>However it then says "This advantage may especially apply for “legacy” candidates" who are defined as children of undergraduate graduates.</p>
<p>you can read my other thread for more deets on my stats</p>
<p>think to yourself if you would have applied their ED without the legacy status. I was a legacy at Penn and Stanford and am choosing not to apply early to either, because despite my very high chance of admittance to Penn and reasonable chance at Stanford they just are not my top choice. In the end of the day, you will have to live there for four years, so make sure you apply for the right reasons. FYI months ago I would never have said this, but after looking at a lot of schools I realize that certain ones really just appeal to you.</p>
<p>What they are saying is that though you may get a bit of extra consideration for your father's association with Columbia, you are not going to get legacy consideration. Legacy is a whole different ball game. At those schools that do give legacy a special boost, those apps are take into a category of its own and evaluated that way. You will not fall into that category. Sort of like a non recruited athlete who has strong sports as ECs. They are taken into consideration, yes, and they love kids who are good athletes and well rounded and likely to do intramural or club sports. But it isn't going to give yo the athlete flag and consideration.</p>
<p>Bescraze, when it comes to the more prestigious schools, it has been my experience and observation that kids don't care if it's their very first choice or not. They may not even have a first choice. They would be very, very happy getting into any number of prestigious schools and are more interested in finding out which one or ones they are more likely to make the cut. They would have no regrets going ED to any of those choices and that is why they want to go ED.</p>
<p>This question is asked every year so there is a good deal of info on it if you do a search. CPT is correct - the admission office web site is very clear on this issue-you do not have legacy status unless one of your parents went to CC or SEAS. It is the legacy status that is associated with the "significantly higher rate of acceptance" that you quote although one could argue what significantly higher actually means. When applications are tagged as "legacy" for interviews by alumni, it is only given to those students who satisfy the above "parent qualifications".</p>
<p>Ah. So in my case I might only receive the slightest nudge if not none at all?</p>
<p>I would be happy to be accepted to either Stanford or Columbia, but since I'm not a true legacy, there is less incentive for me to ED Columbia (yet statistically, it is still more attractive with a 23-8 versus 16-9 ED-RD rate). </p>
<p>I guess I will do some more searches in order to break this tie...</p>
<p>Cpt that may or may not be true for the candidates on the edge (ie they need the legacy boost). Yet, if you are qualified enough to sacrifice that boost at a school you would not be as happy at, for a school you would be happier at and one in which you still have a good chance of admittance than it makes sense. I believe I will still get into Columbia ED, a school I like better than Penn or even Stanford and thus it makes sense for me to not do ed/ea to either. This process only happens once, its better to try and get it right.</p>
<p>I have low self confidence about getting into Stanford, especially since another person doing SCEA in my school has won siemens, science olympiads, etc... but he hasn't much school activities from what I can tell... I am still debating it...</p>
<p>Do you mean school of general studies? That school has a different admissions process than Columbia and I do not believe is factored in terms of legacy admissions to Columbia College. It may help to show however that your family has had an interest in Columbia over the years.
As for legacy admissions at Columbia, this is what I have gathered from the various things I have read
A lot depends on whether someone is a regular legacy in terms of a parent ect who attended Columbia College either arts and sciences or SEAS or whether that legacy is someone important to the university. If an applicant for example has a parent who just attended Columbia, then where two applicants are similar, the one with the legacy will have the edge.
However, where one has a parent who went to Columbia, or even a grandparent (although grandparents are not generally considered legacies) but that family member is very active at Columbia, a big contributor ect, that connection is usually given greater weight.</p>