<p>So now that the oldest daughter is a freshman at UNC, her younger sibling, a high school junior is thinking that's where she would like to attend as well. </p>
<p>I am wondering how having an older sibling at UNC might affect the chances of the younger sibling? Oldest had good stats. 4.86/3.97 GPA - 8 total AP courses. Only 1 B in freshman english. All A's the rest of her hs years. Was 5/522 in her class at time of application. SAT was 2070 total. Came in with 28 credits from AP/SAT scores. </p>
<p>Younger sister has good grades (so far) might take 2-3 fewer AP classes. Taking SAT for the first time next month. Currently 27/525 in her class. Current weighted GPA is 4.5</p>
<p>Assuming that by next fall when she is applying, her grades might be a little lower or SAT and ACT scores a little lower, does having a sister there help her application if she's maybe borderline on her own? Or does it have no affect at all?</p>
<p>Hoping someone out there has some experience with this.</p>
<p>According to a recent study by an EdD (PhD) at Harvard, elite schools consider a primary legacy to be a parent that went for undergrad. Anything other than that helps out to a lesser degree. (Still helps though.)</p>
<p>“He also looked at the difference between legacies with a primary connection and those with looser connections—a parent who attended graduate school, or a sibling, grandparent, aunt, or uncle who attended as a graduate or undergraduate. He found that the tighter connection, while less common, provides a much larger benefit.”
[Legacy’s</a> Advantage May Be Greater Than Was Thought - Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Legacy’s Advantage May Be Greater Than Was Thought”>Legacy’s Advantage May Be Greater Than Was Thought)</p>
<p>UNC admissions says instate legacies don’t matter that much in admissions (it does for OOS):
“How are children of alumni judged in the admissions process? For N.C. applicants, being the child of a Carolina alumnus helps only as a tie breaker. Out-of-state children of alumnu do fare better than others from out of state.”
[UNC</a> General Alumni Association :: Admissions FAQs |](<a href=“Carolina Alumni”>http://alumni.unc.edu/article.aspx?SID=1839)</p>
<p>However, just looking at acceptance rates for last year (2010):
Instate children of alumni: 64%
Instate non-children of alumni: 47.8%</p>
<p>OOS children of alumni: 42.7%
OOS non-children of alumni: 19.6%
[Carolina</a> Alumni Review - March/April 2011](<a href=“Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2011”>Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2011)</p>
<p>It would ‘appear’ that both demographics do have a benefit having a parent alumni and in light of the first link I posted - I would assume having a daughter already at UNC would help to a lesser degree.</p>
<p>If she is in-state, she has a very good chance of getting in.</p>
<p>We are OOS. My son is now a senior at UNC. He is very active and known at the school. My daughter had slightly better stats than my son and was not accepted. Does not seem that sibling legacy helped at all.</p>
<p>Correlation =/= Causation. </p>
<p>Lurking variable for in-state: the fact that having one or more highly educated parent probably means that the applicant has been raised in a home that focuses on education, good genes, possibly higher income, etc. </p>
<p>OOS- Helps the “on the fence” applicants but not much more than that.</p>
<p>ArtemisDea: Correlation does not equal causation is probably the most over reinforced concept in statistics for social/economic science.</p>
<p>We are making the best guess with the data available. And while yes, lurking contributors do exist for sons/daughters of instate applicants – many colleges realize a higher yield rate from children of alumni. This (in addition to other financial/contribution factors) encourages higher admit rates for children of alumni. </p>
<p>I don’t think you could statistically attribute double the acceptance rate to the constructs you listed. You have no data suggesting that the alumni applicants are more qualified than non-alumni children at the mean level. While yes, there are some applicants from lower income/attainment backgrounds, I’m sure some children of non-alumni are NE transplants with no connection to NC or UNC. Your generalization may not apply to the situation being discussed here. For instance, North Carolina’s population has grown by over 20+% over the last two decades.</p>
<p>The article I cited above, from an Edd in Harvard Quantitative Policy Analysis program controlled for some of the factors that might influence a legacy bias. </p>
<p>“Mr. Hurwitz’s research found that legacy students, on average, had slightly higher SAT scores than nonlegacies. But he was able to control for that factor, as well as athlete status, gender, race, and many less-quantifiable characteristics. He also controlled for differences in the selectivity of the colleges.”</p>