I was wondering how much of an advantage you get when you have a legacy, specifically to schools such as Exeter, Andover, Deerfield and Choate. Also, if you have a legacy to one of these schools, let’s say Andover, would another school, say Choate, not accept you because you have an Andover legacy? Sorry if the second question didn’t make sense. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Legacy is one kind of “knowing someone on the inside.” As with all insider “contacts,” the quality of the association matters: Were large donations and Trusteeships involved in that legacy? Generations of close family? Baseball tream stars or legendary talent contributions that enhanced the school’s reputation?
In those cases, probably walk in through open doors.
–How about the other possibility? Your one legacy connection was a distant relative who squeaked through academically while being less than charming, or as an adult later became an embarrassment to the school?
Sometimes a business/social connection is as strong or stronger than a legacy, and a phone call between cronies can help a candidate along.
My impression is that legacy does matter in prep admissions, and there are levels of influence.
That said, a good student whose parent attended will be chosen over a good student whose parents did not attend. Frankly, I can’t imagine why that wouldn’t happen. “Be true to your school” runs both ways.
A mediocre/pretty bad student may be rejected if the legacy was undistinguished or distant. But then again may be accepted if the legacy history was mutually memorable or outstanding. That kind of candidate probably will have experienced records enhancement along the way, so the record doesn’t reflect the full weight of the candidate’s mental denseness. (Excuses will be made for poor standardized test performance.)
Schools have an interest in keeping up their college admissions stats but advantages kick in and strings are pulled there too.
Perhaps the dumbest person I ever took a meeting with had a Harvard diploma on his wall: In that case, my first thought was, “Must be a legacy.”
So I would say, yes, legacy matters but it may be somewhat nuanced.
No, having an Andover legacy will not effect your acceptance at Choate–if every other aspect is up to par. But if Andover is a family tradition, you’d want a good reason for switching, wouldn’t you? Your family already will have made a large investment in Andover: Why would you start all over again elsewhere? And why deny your own future children that Andover tradition?
Though it’s a free country, for some, you’d probably want to keep your reason for switching alleigances to Choate to yourself, unless you’re 100% sure it will help.
Or if your family had been victimized by a serious crime that had not been dealt with appropriately. That is complicated, and you may not want to go there, but if asked directly…It’s up to you.
Played wth new puppy and missed the edit window: “allegiances.”
I think in some cases having a legacy status at one school can hurt you at another school. DS1 is currently at a big name BS and when it came time for DS2 to apply to schools this was problematic. I think this was somewhat of a “hook” for DS1’s school, but a negative for the other schools. If we had only known that he wasn’t going to get in to our first son’s school we would have handled the interview process differently. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end!