<p>Hey everyone!
I am currently a junior in highschool and my brother is in his sophomore year at Harvard. I was wondering whether I would be considered as a legacy applicant or not, considering he won't be graduating when I apply.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>No, sibling’s are not considered legacy applicants. According to past articles, William Fitzsimmons has been quoted as saying “siblings are weighted like a feather on a scale.” Some siblings are admitted, others are not – it depends on the year and the student. FWIW: My daughter is a junior at Harvard and two years ago my son applied as a sibling. Harvard rejected him even though he had better stats than his sister and was also admitted to Yale and Princeton. He is currently a sophomore at Yale and could not be happier. Bottom line: Harvard is a crapshoot even for siblings!</p>
<p>It’s an interesting question. There is gibby’s children’s experience. On the other hand, my son has been taken by surprise by the number of sibling pairs he’s met on campus, so far. In his own four-person dorm, one of his roommates has a brother who is currently a senior.</p>
<p>One could argue that the heritage/environment that produces one Ivy League student isn’t so unlikely to produce others.</p>
<p>Gibby’s quote from Dean Fitzsimmons is actually the first I’ve ever seen indicating that Harvard admits that there is any sibling preference at all, but I’ve long suspected one.</p>
<p>Obviously, for an institution that rejects 70% of it’s formally-defined legacies (mother or father graduated from Harvard College), any sibling preference would be slight. But, hey, every little bit helps. You never know, that’s the feather that might put an applicant over the top.</p>
<p>But obviously, your application has to start out great for any sibling preference to come into play at all.</p>
<p>^I think you misapprehend the significance of the simile. “A feather on a scale” means there is no weight given to having a sibling either attending or having graduated from Harvard.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Maybe I’m not familiar with the expression but I would interpret that as having an effect so slight that it’s not really significant, but still existent nevertheless. Feathers aren’t weightless.</p>
<p>Browniebaker,</p>
<p>I guess I use more sensitive scales than you. ;-)</p>
<p>My own interpretation is similar to DwightEisenhower’s.</p>
<p>im with dwight david on this one</p>
<p>My experience was similar to what notjoe describes: despite the fact that the Admissions Office was silent on the matter, I knew a lot of sibling pairs at Harvard. Of course, I attended Harvard with Increase Mather.</p>
<p>I also agree that, however slight it may be, the effect of a feather on the scale is greater than the effect of no feather on the scale.</p>
<p>
I think this is probably the case.</p>
<p>Siblings attending Harvard frequently are legacies as well.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting question. My son had one (of nine) blockmates whose sister went to H; one (of twelve) members of his a cappela group that had a sister at H; and at least one (of about fifty) in his choir that had a sister at H. He mentioned others. I know that one of my son’s friends sibling pairs was a legacy (and I suspect one of the others also). In his HS, one of his teachers had three children go to H and they were not legacies (and at a HS that would typically send one to three students from a class of 400 a year to H). </p>
<p>Nature or Nurture? It seems more than coincidence, but as gibby suggests it is not an absolute. Maybe a heavy feather? (Especially when combined with legacy.) It would seem that the data should be available, perhaps to the Crimson?</p>
<p>I am actually amazed that three of D’s block mates (sophomores) have younger siblings entered H this year.</p>
<p>Just to clarify once and for all… Having siblings at Harvard will do nothing to help your application. As a matter of fact, Harvard will not even know you have siblings at the school unless you reference it in your application.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, all interpretation of the light-as-a-feather simile aside, Harvard has stated that it does not recognize any preference for siblings. The statement has been made publicly as well as to alumni interviewers.</p>
<p>And yet, the anecdotal evidence seems to strongly suggest siblings do have an edge, even if ever so slight. So many factors however – athletic recruits’ siblings who play same sport and have also been recruited, children of development parents, children of impact legacies… I have been surprised by how many of my son’s friends have siblings attending, graduated, or accepted for next year</p>
<p>Rowingisfun, I am surprised to see you write with such authority. My impression of the adcom officers is that they care deeply about their areas and their admittees. They remember the kids who are admitted from their region and are pleased to watch their progress during college and beyond. Local alumni interviewers also remember these details. Why do you think so definitively that the admissions office does not even know when siblings apply unless they are told? We call the phenomenon “sib tug” in our area, and believe that its influence is at least as heavy as a feather. We had a non-legacy younger brother from our region admitted this year EA (and deservedly so).</p>
<p>I am the parent of two kids - one graduated from Harvard and the second is a current student. We are not legacies and we were also told when our second child applied that sibling is not considered as legacy. We were not surprised when our second child got admission at Harvard as we felt that he was even a better applicant than our first child.
He actually got admitted at Harvard, Yale & Princeton. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that several siblings are in our second child’s class - but very deserving kids. There is space in Harvard application to write about siblings. I am sure the adcom will notice that.</p>
<p>I have two daughters. D1 went to Harvard and D2 was wait-listed and eventually denied. This even though D2 had slightly higher grades. (Both were excellent high-stat and good-EC students). But IMO what really made the big difference between the two applications was the five years that elapsed between the time each came out of high school and applied. Because during that period the number of Harvard applicants grew from 20K to 30K. </p>
<p>Whatever featherweight sibling preference D2 may have been granted was more than crushed by the mathematics of having 10,000 extra kids compete with for a spot.</p>
<p>@rowingisfun: “Harvard will not even know you have siblings at the school unless you reference it in your application.”</p>
<p>If you have a sibling – in college or not – the Common Application requires you to accurately complete “Family Information,” which specifically asks about siblings and the school(s) they are attending. So Harvard, or any college for that matter, always has access to sibling data. See bottom right hand side of page 2: <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/DownloadForms/2012/2012-13FY-FinalHighlightedPreview.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/DownloadForms/2012/2012-13FY-FinalHighlightedPreview.pdf</a></p>
<p>One of the few people from my school who got admitted to Harvard had a brother there. My friends tell me his brother “helped” him get into Harvard, as they were more likely to accept the recent admit from my school if he already had a sibling going there.</p>