Hey guys so I know that having a legacy at BC does give an applicant a leg up throughout the process, but what if you DONT have one? I can’t imagine that legacy applicants constitute more than a fraction of the applicant pool, but is it significantly harder to be accepted without a legacy? Thanks!
The BC adcoms monitor this site and are always very helpful clarifying information about the BC admissions process.
BC has lots of alumni who contribute heavily to the college and who have offspring that apply to MIT. As a result, in order to protect alumni contributions, the BC adcoms have no choice other than to say that being legacy does help. That’s a very understandable statement from them, given the bind they are in.
They cannot say when legacy will help or how much it helps. Nor should they.
There are lots of discussion of legacy in past BC threads on this forum. Some say legacy only helps if a relative of yours has a name on a BC building. I don’t think it’s that extreme.
Various others talk about furious alumni parents who gave $100-$500 per year to BC, only to see their kids not get accepted.
Legacy helps heavily at some colleges. BC is not known to be one of them.
1 Like
That must have changed in the past 25 years. When I was applying to BC in the late '80s, I was told by BC adcoms that legacy mattered a lot (“15% of our incoming class is reserved for children of alumni”). I did get in, but to my son’s dismay, chose not to go to BC…so no legacy for him, as a grandparent doesn’t count. 
It seems it has change in the past 25 years. Various threads on the subject seem to indicate legacy was very important back in the 80s and with the rise in BC ranking and the competitiveness of the students applying it has had less relevance. Seems the legacy relationship has also been narrowed on the app to only ask about parents whereas apparently it used to ask about grandparents, aunts/ uncles.
I posted this in an earlier thread on this topic. Legacy consideration is reserved for child or sibling only.
Legacy status, especially if your parent is an active supporter, is a significant advantage at BC. You still need to be “qualified”, i.e. gpa and test scores at or above 25% of accepted students, but if so, BC admissions has acknowledged that legacy applicants are reviewed in a separate admissions pile.
@dtrain1027 why would legacies be held to a higher standard (at or above 25%)? That would actually hurt your chances! Most schools don’t hold legacies to higher standards, but give them a bump if they are otherwise qualified.
@Steglitz90,legacies are not held to a higher standard at BC. By 25%, I meant the bottom of the middle 50%, i.e. 25%-75% of accepted students. For example, the middle 50 % SAT scores for accepted students last year was 1930-2150.
@dtran1997 Thanks – I totally misread that! Oops! 