<p>If it helps you any, U.Va. apparently won’t consider you a legacy:</p>
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<p>[Admission</a> Liaison Program | Admission | U.Va. Alumni](<a href=“http://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/admission-liaison-program/]Admission”>http://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/admission-liaison-program/)</p>
<p>They’re both very good universities, and you should seriously consider going to either one if you’re admitted. And really, both Emory and U.Va. are too selective to be admitting students only because they’re legacies. Being a legacy may be what gets you plucked from the pool of academically suitable applicants, but it won’t get you admitted if you’re not academically suitable.</p>
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<p>Be very careful about what you know, as opposed to what you think you know. You’ve been told that “this one kid” whose dad knew Bill Clinton got a letter from Bill Clinton on his behalf to Dartmouth. Unless you know Bill Clinton well enough to ask, I doubt that you know whether any such letter was actually sent. And unless you know the Dean of Admissions at Dartmouth, I doubt that you know whether that letter–if it ever existed–made one iota of difference in the disposition of that kid’s application.</p>
<p>I absolutely believe that selective colleges couldn’t care less what famous person writes a letter in an applicant’s behalf. Why should Dartmouth care? Suppose they let this kid in. What’s Bill Clinton going to do for Dartmouth? Or suppose they don’t let him in. What’s Bill Clinton going to do to Dartmouth? Colleges care about letters that talk knowledgeably about the kind of person you are: they kind of student you are, the kind of worker you are, the kind of self-starter you are. They do not care whether your father knows a former President. </p>
<p>Because, really, Bill Clinton knows a lot of people. And the number of people who *think *that they know Bill Clinton, when Bill Clinton actually couldn’t remember their names or faces without the help of an aide, is probably many times greater.</p>