I just went through the admissions process for the first time with my oldest D. Between my wife and I, she was legacy for 3 several elites (H, S, UChic) and some others. I believe she was an average excellent student. She got WL at all the schools; and ironically admitted to one of my alma maters that explicitly states there is no legacy preference (Cal OOS, she/we are excited for her to go to UCLA).
As much as I would have liked for her to have the opportunity to choose from these elites, I have come to the following realizations. The game is very different now compared to then, and it is extremely difficult for anybody to get into the elites. Legacy per se probably counts for almost nothing; At S, they say the admission rate is double, but that is still double of 5%, but most might have gotten in anyway. Legacy families generally have no other favored attributes (high income, intact families). It’s out of my hands as to whether my other Ds will get into my alma maters; its completely on them and their own self-motivation to have the grades and record that puts them in contention. I let my D do it her way; given her result, I am tempted to be more interventionist with the next in line, but I will not. And maybe that’s as it should be. Go Bruins!
I think UCLA is a pretty elite school!
Congrats to her.
From what I’ve seen recently, it seems students who are first-gen for college have a leg up over children of alums of elite universities and LACs.
I think kids need a double hook for the top elites.
Thanks for posting. Your D has wonderful options - I’d say overall she had a fantastically successful college application process!
What do you mean by the reference to intact families?
It is definitely different, I know two kids URM, legacy to Cornell, Stanford. They did not get in.
Probably true, but that’s because it’s generally much harder for a first gen student to reach the same level of achievement as a student with legacy at an elite school, who has probably had a relative wealth of opportunities.
Congrats to your D, she will do great!
I would agree that the kids really need some sort of hook to get into the tippy tops. Having good grades and high scores is just the barrier to entrance, but you really need something else to seperate yourself from the pack… band, sports, scientist, singer, writer etc.
I just looked at some stats with my son the other day from Brown University on Naviance. 13 kids from his school applied and zero accepted. These were all high achieving students from a competitive high school in an affluent area. Zero accepted last year, and only 1 in the last 5 years. Crazy.
I’m a big fan of UCLA academics, I think they are highly underrated. And you can’t beat the weather
By reading CC for a while I become more convinced what I mentioned on another thread. That’s a good thing because we have bases to argue for ages that going to an elite school won’t make one an elite graduate. Average in, average out.
Not getting into an elite school is fine.
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What do you mean by the reference to intact families?
Legacy families generally have no other favored attributes (high income, intact families).
[quote]
This WAPO article from 2014 examines why “children raised by two parents tend to be more successful - at school, in the future labor market, in their own marriages - than children raised by a single mom or dad,” closely looking at the recent research by Kimberly Howard and Richard Reeves.
In 2011, my high-achieving, younger daughter was accepted at the University of Chicago, for which she had three legacy connections (her father and two grandparents). She attended a different college. In 2015, none of the high-achieving young people I know who applied to the U of C were admitted, including my nephew, who has two legacy connections (his grandparents) and is a URM. I think it’s just getting harder to get into schools like the U of C.
Why are you tempted to intervene more with the next child if you and your daughter are happy with the results of her school search?
I miswrote, the favored attributes to elite colleges all else being equal would be low income and non-intact families, the legacy families tend to be high income – and then maybe I’m wrong about intact families, divorce rates might be just as high across all economic/social categories.
I agree with eiholi, even with legacy, and being a good student, it looks like extra packaging is necessary. I’ve decided my kids got to do that themselves, but its so tempting to “pay” for it (eg professional ballet academy versus no-name local ballet school. OTOH, she became a teacher at the local school).
For folks hoping to use legacy as a leg-up, some of the challenges include that many schools consider only parent’s undergrad as a legacy – a parent’s grad/professional school does not count for legacy. Also, grandparents often only “count” when parent also attended same school, so that have two generations of alum. And many top schools say legacy counts most for ED and not at all in RD round. So, the legacy “chit” must be strategically played, and even then, as noted, may only convert an obscenely, impossibly low admit rate to just an impossibly low admit rate.
UCLA out of state is a great result, congrats to the OP.
A big Univ of California fan here. Go Bruins indeed 
Three of my sibs went to UCLA. THEY are elite!
I completely relate @DHMchicago I went to Y and know what an incredible experience one can have at these colleges. Unfortunately my son did not get in, legacy notwithstanding. Oh well, just move on. He did get into a very good school and now we focus on that.
Nephew just got into UCLA. You child will
Have good company. Go Bruins!
Most of the elite schools (except Chicago and usually Vanderbilt) are actually unfriendly to divorced parent situations from a financial aid perspective, because they use the income and assets of both parents and any new spouses to determine financial aid. Since divorced parents have higher expenses maintaining separate households (instead of one shared one while they were married) and often spend much of their money on lawyers, they tend to have less money available, even if they are cooperative about funding college for the kids, which they often are not out of spite.
Otherwise, legacy applicants are also generally from highly advantaged families, since they have at least one parent who is a college graduate (by definition), and from an elite college as well. That tends to be advantageous in getting the student to the point where it is realistic to apply to an elite college to begin with. Few students from disadvantaged families (e.g. first generation to college, low income) even get to that point (so the few that do are often seen has extremely high achievers to get to that point starting at a disadvantaged situation).