<p>(1) Why do the colleges give favorable considerations to legacy applicants? Isn't that a bit unfair? It will also dilute admission standards when a legacy applicant is preferred to a meritorious candidate.
(2) If one of the parent has gone to a grad school (not to undergrad) in a particular University will the kid have legacy benefits?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>(1) This is a practice that has been going on for a very long time. Giving legacy status is a way for universities to ensure families feel a sense of loyalty to a school. Infact many private schools have an alumni office that deals directly with legacies. If the families feel very connected to the school, they donate heavily. College is a business, just like Enron, Adelphia, and Tyco. Although this may seem unfair, I think sometimes people over exaggerate just how effective legacy status really is. By no means what so ever would an unqualified legacy gain admission. The only benefit of legacy status is if they are deciding between to equally mathced applicants and they are only planning on taking one. I was reading a similar thread some time ago, and a couple of legacy kids were talking about how they were just as qualified as the non legacy students. Most people tend to dwell on the legacy idea a little to heavily, don't feel disadvantaged because it doesn't help that much. The only visible advantage is that legacies get interviews. But don't worry, because these interviews, while on campus, are with alumni and not real admissions officers.</p>
<p>(2) Parents attending graduate schools at a university do give you legacy status benefits, whatever they may be.</p>
<p>"By no means what so ever would an unqualified legacy gain admission."</p>
<p>That's partially true...kids who are terribly underqualified (in my HS) get into Top 25 schools on a yearly basis simply because of legacy.</p>
<p>To answer OP's first question, a lot of things are unfair in life. I know it stinks knowing that kids who don't work get into quality schools because of their parents. I've seen it happen firsthand.</p>
<p>How do you know they got in based soley on legacy? What means do you have of judging that, just wondering?</p>
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College is a business, just like Enron, Adelphia, and Tyco.
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<p>I find your examples quite interesting... :P</p>
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How do you know they got in based soley on legacy? What means do you have of judging that, just wondering?
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<p>I second that. I doubt dvlfnfv5 works in admissions at a top 25 school.</p>
<p>halopeno2 writes "Parents attending graduate schools at a university do give you legacy status benefits, whatever they may be. " </p>
<p>Actually this is not generally true. According to <a href="http://www.roadtocollege.com/home/Forbes.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.roadtocollege.com/home/Forbes.aspx</a>
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... whether your child will count as a "legacy." Many elite schools consider only the children of former undergraduates as legacies. Others, such as the University of Pennsylvania, use a broader definition, counting both children and grandchildren of former undergrads and graduate students.
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<p>While not a shoe-in, is sure seems like legacy status helps. According to an article last year in the Stanford Daily
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At Harvard, their acceptance rate was 40 percent in 2003. At Princeton, 35 percent and at the University of Pennsylvania, 41 percent. With acceptance rates at these top universities in the low teens, legacy applicants are more than three times as likely to receive a thick admission package than other students.
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<p>Also, I think the admissions study conducted by Princeton in 2005 which broke down admissions by race also accounted for legacy and athletic recruit status.</p>
<p>Legacy added somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 points on the SAT I (old) I believe</p>
<p>OK, well I'll use this one ditzy girl from my school as an example. She had double legacy and her parents are extremely wealthy (well, everyone in my town is wealthy). Where do I start...she cheated on math tests by getting people to give her answers from tests from previous years, she was more interested in partying every weekend as opposed to studying, she could tell you more about the latest designer wear than about Calc...and she's going to Penn next year. Good luck to her!</p>
<p>She might still have been a good student (ditzy girls can be).</p>
<p>Sounds like she was smart and used what she had to her advantage =P</p>
<p>pssh! going to a good school doesn't mean she'll excel...</p>
<p>it'll catch up to her eventually... the later it catches up to her, the more likely it will come too late for her to learn her lesson.</p>
<p>When the world knows she can't do crap at her job, no one will hire her</p>
<p>(2) varies by institution to some extent. Not as much weight as undergraduate.</p>
<p>Life isn't always fair. This is the first in a series of life experiences that will qualify that.</p>
<p>Legacy helps... but if your parents donate a lot to a school, that is when unqualified applicants get in. I talked with an addmissions officer at a top 25 school, he said that they were given a list of people whose parents had donated X amount, and as long as they were not completely horrible, they would be accepted.</p>
<p>Although, unqualified legacies, may be turned down, the top schools (HPY) admit that legacy is a factor more than "all things equal". The stats for admitted legacies are slightly lower than the average for rest of the students admitted. There have been occaisions in some schools where borderline students have been admitted due to legacy and development status. In fact, the development flag is probably the stronger "hook", especially if the donations are very large. Some schools also take into consideration how much involvement the alumni parents have with the school. If they took their diplomas and have never had anything to do with the school, the legacy card is not going to have a lot of clout. But in some cases, it is difficult to reject legacy children for a number of other reasons. When I attended my college reunion, I was surprised to find a couple of former classmates, and students who were at the school when I attended, and they were working in a variety of administrative positions there. THe director of admissions was talking to a classmate of mine who mentioned that his daughter was applying there in fall. The comment was, "she has coming to the school since she was a baby". Apparently this alum visited the campus regularly, got to know key people in administration and brought his daughter with him during those visits. When you have that kind of personal contact, it makes it a bit more difficult not to accept the applicant,if she is a qualified applicant. </p>
<p>Having legacies at the school also contributes to the atmosphere, as it does bring parent alums back for reunions that they may otherwise skip. These sort of things all add up in making the school community. Some schools offer sibling preference also, though it is usually not as strong as parental legacies. It depends on the school how they define legacy. Some include family members other than parents; some also include graduate and professional school; some don't. Also some "Night " programs or alternative programs may not count towards legacy status.</p>