Notredame and Baylor alumni tend to have very strong connections with their alma maters and like Ivies, legacy children are more likely to apply and get accepted.
We took DD to visit Notre Dame on Monday. I didn’t “get it” before, but I do now. They are laser-focused-in-the-extreme on the university’s mission in a very deep and meaningful way.
You can argue all you want whether or not legacies SHOULD have an advantage or not. That’s not my point. It was crystal clear what Notre Dame is looking for, even to us non-legacy outsiders. Any junior in the room paying any attention whatsoever HAD to know then and there whether they had Notre Dame’s blend of the right stuff. And if they didn’t already have it, junior year is too late to seed and develop it (at least in time for freshman admission decisions). So that’s the advantage to legacy applicants: for them it’s not about parents nudging them towards the qualities ND seeks starting in 9th grade; the successful legacy applicants had already been living and developing those qualities much of their lives.
I can’t generalize my take away from that tour to all colleges that show legacy preference, but I can say that it became very easy to understand WHY ND is #1 in percentage of legacies to admitted students.
ND is very transparent about their legacy policy. They commit to being 20-25% legacy students. That’s about double what you see at other top 20 schools.
ND’s culture is very strong and tight knit, especially with the Catholic overlay. Many people don’t like the culture, which is somewhat lacking in diversity. But for those who do like it, ND is a family. Their acceptance letters always start the same way: “Welcome home.”
And if your brand is family, then it makes sense to have lots of legacies. ND alumni kids apply to ND in HUGE numbers, and ND gets lots a very strong apps from their alumni pool.
One of the reasons that ND doesn’t use ED is that its big legacy influence tends to produce the kinds of high yields that ED does.
Of course children of alumni apply in record numbers. Imagine since birth…
-your parents dressed you up as a leprechaun every haloween
-you watched “Rudy” every Saturday instead of cartoons
-college test prep was to name every head coach since Ara Parshegian. And you don’t get to skip the Gerry Faust era.
-you had to tap a picture Touchdown Jesus on your way out the door to school each morning.
My DS’s HS has an 80% yield to ND. Most of the losses are to HYP.
@eyeore. If it’s a Catholic school in New England- ND and BC have pretty close to 100% yield Lol.
“80% yield to ND. Most of the losses are to HYP.”
This is also true of BYU.
Although I do have one client family where one child is at BYU and another turned it down for Columbia.
Worked out for Mitt Romney.
As a Texan I see why Baylor ranks high in legacy enrollment. Texas has millions of Baylor legacies and they all love their school so when their children grow up, they often want to have similar experiences.
Baylor is a big name in Texas, from university, medical college, nursing school, law school, business school, dental college, pharmacy school, public health, physical therapy, large medical centers etc are peppered all over this state. Baylor football is a huge thing and even though scandals tainted it, it didn’t effect Baylor Brand. It constantly ranks between #2-#4 in Texas. It’s not as religious or conservative as it used to be so attracting more diverse student body. Their generous merit scholarships attract good number of high achievers.
Specially for pre-med, it’s a Mecca because percentage wise they send most kids to medical schools, UT number wise (it’s huge) and Rice (it’s exclusive) are their only real competitors.