The question always is whether a legacy kid is stronger than an unhooked kid that is also taken in. Not when compared to a urm that grew up in poor circumstances.
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Drugs and alcohol are expensive 
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Maybe you can cite a source to clarify?
Because if itās not a fact, thenā¦?
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Yes, I too would like to know the source.
I havenāt read this anywhere, or read that legacy applicants are disadvantaged.
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The same survey @neela1 posted has the breakdown.
ETA: Sorry. I guess not the same survey. But to @neela1ās point, this probably has more to do with SES than with legacy. Any otherwise unhooked higher SES applicant likely has to cross a similar bar.
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I am sorry - I am going to take that back. Well, it wasnāt really what I was saying and absolutely not clamming that as fact. I do have friends that feel that way given anecdotal results from the past few years. I doubt a legacy student is more disadvantaged than any other student from similar background. I am sure any perceived disadvantage comes from the same shift in institutional priorities that disadvantages otherwise similarly privileged kids.
I think some of this impression comes from schools taking a stance against legacy consideration. Legacy has become a dirty word. I see how some may feel like schools are making a point of not accepting legacy students - in my limited HS bubble, people feel this way about Penn.
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Exactly! Thatās what I said. āHonorsā is a marketing ploy to scoop up kids who have some special talent or something UMD wants. The term doesnāt appear on the graduation degree.
DEPARTMENTAL honors DO show up on the degree, but no one talks about that at admissionsā¦
Welcome to Terp Nation, @swan1 !!
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Thanks! But looks like they honor students have good housing and some exclusive programs.
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Both of them correlating with household income.
Which means thereās confounds upon confounds, and as with many such confounds the common thread is class.
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There was a study in 2004 that found legacy preference was the equivalent of a boost of 160 points on the SAT:
The degree of the legacy boost may have decreased over the years, leading to complaints by some legacy applicants, but there has never been any suggestion that legacies were disadvantaged.
On the other hand, according to Harvard, admitted legacies tend to have higher median (but not average) test scores compared to non-legacy admits, keeping in mind that thereāre some admits within each group with hooks stronger than legacy status.
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Yes - I can see that Harvard legacies might have had social and economic advantages (able to afford better school systems, better parental support/enrichment, SAT/ACT prepping etc.) that result being admitted with higher stats, than average/less advantaged applicants.
So, itās NOT AT ALL that there is a āhigher barā for legacy applicants, but it rather could be that one side effect of legacy might be better opportunities for higher-than-average stats.
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The analysis by Prof. Espenshade, et al. actually showed that legacy admits lowered average test scores (due to that equivalent boost of 160 SAT points). However, according to Harvard, median test scores of legacy admits were higher (so they probably have a wider distribution than that of non-legacy admits as a whole, and likely a much wider distribution than that of unhooked admits as a group).
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Itās yours or your Sonās opinion! ; )
I too want my kids to be in a place where they have good chance to make friends, have fun, date whatever every one does in college. The quintessential americana stuff! I hope being in a large public school will help with that.
Honors does show up on the degree, and many Honors program require an Honors thesis for graduation. It is a huge advantage to have that for research based graduate program admissions.
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I agree itās an advantage to do a thesis if applying for grad school. However, quality varies and potentially where it is compulsory, the expected quality may be much lower than when it is optional. Dās required honors thesis was not as good as the thesis that S did, where he was not in honors but applied in the summer before senior year and was one of about 10 in his class of 100+ allowed to do it (you had to find a professor who would agree to supervise you).
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So is there is an option to do thesis if it is not required? My D committed to UMD(not honors) and unless she qualifies for departmental honors there is no thesis required as per my understanding. So if she is interested to pursue grad school how can she improve her chances?
Appropriate math course work. And 2-4 semesters of research with a prof in her area of interest. Great to have a published paper if possible.
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Donāt know about UMD, S was at UCLA where departmental honors (including the thesis) is separate from college honors:
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So, it looks like S23 will be choosing UC Berkeley 
And that is the final decision, since he had declined the UCLA waitlist (never was truly interested in UCLA).
Our whole family is very happy!
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At UMD, each Department establishes its own criteria for admission to the Departmental Honors program. The following link provides links to each Department
Students cannot apply for Departmental Honors until the end of their Sophomore year, or during their Junior year.
Admission to Departmental Honors automatically confers admission to the Honors College.
Not all students who apply are admitted. Only the top students are admitted. Departmental Honors is additional work for the student. I do not known if all Departments require a Thesis. My D did have to write and defend a Thesis, and it was subsequently published. That did help with Grad School applications.
That being said, every year, there are many students who get into Grad Schools without an Undergrad Thesis
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