This speculation is based on my limited and anecdotal private exchanges with a few parents, but wanted to put it out there to test and see what others thought
So far I have heard that Chicago, does give consideration to legacies ( looks like this is not restricted to just kids of College alums, like at Harvard, but anyone who attended Chicago, even grad school) but uses them to fill slots after other students have been given a chance to enroll. In other words, they get in, they just have to be patient and be willing to get on the wait list.
The families I have spoken to, have kids with competitive profiles, and applied early, but got deferred and then wait listed and then got off the list.
If this is true, then for those who don’t have hooks, this is good news. Chicago admission committee prioritizes non legacies over legacies, but then allows the legacies in at the last minute to round out the class.
Any legacy families out there that can agree or disagree with this observation?
The process is largely a black box, so this is an unanswerable question short of information from admissions. For what it’s worth, I applied EA with something you could call “legacy plus” status (mother and uncle both attended) and was accepted. My school’s GC laughed out loud a few times while reading my uncommon essay, and called it the best one he’d read this year, so maybe my essays (combined with stats above the 75th percentile and a set of ECs that aren’t too common) would’ve gotten me in anyway. On the other hand, upon rereading my essays I can see that they break one of William Safire’s rules of writing (“Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do”) and sound rather clichéd, so maybe a closer read for legacy applicants affected my decision.
I highly doubt my essays were so brilliant they’d overcome a system prioritizing non-legacies over legacies, and I haven’t cured cancer or been elected president of a mid-sized to large country. Rather than prioritize non-legacies, it seems more likely that Chicago gives some legacy preference, but not as much as those schools (most prominently HYP) where legacies are accepted at 4-5x the overall rate.
Another ‘legacy+’ admitted EA with 75 percentile stats, geographic advantage.
I know several legacies currently attending/attended who were not waitlisted. I do not think the defer to waitlist is true overall. A well qualified legacy who can convey that they are truly interested in the school and applies EA, I believe, stands a good chance of admission.
Also, there are not that many legacies applying at this point. Back 25+ years ago when the current crop of parents were attending UG, there were only about 500 students graduating/year. Given this and extrapolating the number of kids that these alums produced (surprisingly large number I know of had no kids), I would estimate that there are no more than 250 legacy apps/year and possibly quite a bit less. I would be surprised if Mr. Nondorf did not give some preference to the relatively few that there are.
FWIW, DD did write a convincing “why Chicago?” essay that the regional rep commented on in the card he sent her. Also her letter of acceptance specifically referenced her legacy status and there have been other references, including a letter that was specifically addressed to me.
@NotVerySmart@ihs76 Are you URM, or ORM or do you have some other such hook besides legacy?
Interestingly, both your cases look like you were very good on the stats side at least, and maybe on the fit side as well, so maybe the legacy hook didn’t really play much of a role? You would have been accepted even without legacy status?
The parents I spoke to did tell me that their kids were in the 60th percentile range in stats.
I’m neither URM nor ORM, with no hooks besides legacy. I had a 1600 (CR+M) and high grades at a full-IB school, which probably made it easier for Chicago to accept me than stats below the 25th percentile might’ve.
Same as @NotVerySmart (on test scores and grades). Just a normal legacy, not legacy+. I think the legacies who get waitlisted are those who probably wouldn’t have had a chance without legacy.
@VeryLuckyParent, do you truly believe there is any difference between 60th and 75th percentile stats? Do you really think the adcoms will say ‘we’ll take this one with SAT of 2250 but reject this one because she only has 2200?’ I’m not even sure how one would know what the 60th percentile is short of making a lot of assumptions about the shape of the curve. You keep looking for predictability and order in this process which is largely not predictable and semi-random.
What I can tell you is that there are many students with better stats than DD who were not admitted. She was passionate about her one main EC but had nothing to show for it on paper. Her essays were heartfelt and ‘her’ but she’s not a great writer. However, she is a “high stats legacy from a significantly underrepresented state who knows and very much appreciates UC for what it is.” I expect she benefited from every factor in that sentence.
@ihs76 You may not believe it but there is a significant difference in admit rates for students who are above 75% in stats at some schools. In fact for certain demographic groups being anywhere below this point is almost a body blow as far as admissions to elite schools is concerned. Having It may not get you in, but not having it can very quickly take you out.
I believe that the legacy kids probably all wrote solid if not spectacular essays and were all competitive. Yet some got in and some got wait listed. Right now it looks like it was based largely on stats.
Again it’s my speculation, but that’s why I am looking for more data points to either strengthen or abandon my assumption.
If a bunch of low stats non URM legacy kids got in right away, it would clearly disprove my hypothesis. That’s why I am curious.
@ihs76 It makes sense that there might be a difference between stats at the 76th percentile and up, and stats at the 26-75 percentiles. The former will raise a school’s SAT midrange at both ends (25th and 75th percentile); the latter will raise the 25th percentile but lower the 75th percentile.
Put another way: accept only students at the 80th percentile and the SAT midrange goes up at both ends. Accept students at the 60th percentile and it converges towards a point in the middle of that range - the 25th percentile rises but the 75th percentile drops. Accept kids at the 20th percentile and both ends of the midrange will drop. From a stats perspective (and, by extension, a rankings perspective) those outcomes are positive, neutral, and negative, in that order.
I think at the waitlist stage, the goal is accepting kids who will come (and probably doing so in ways that preserve whatever mix of students they’re looking for). Everybody still in the pool at that stage has made the cut wrt stats – I’d be really surprised if they were a decisive factor wrt who gets off the waitlist.
I could certainly be wrong, but my guess is “solid” essays probably don’t do you any favors in this particular admissions process. And the reason stats seem to matter is it’s what parents know/talk about. Judging from my experience doing graduate admissions, recs and essays are more likely to make a candidate stand out than grades and scores. So that’s where I’d look (if we could) to see who got admitted vs. waitlisted in the first place.
I know Chicago is looking for a ** certain type. ** Having said that, mine is more limited inquiry. It is restricted to primarily legacies and how they fare wrt the general population of applicants at Chicago
Again, I agree. I am just wondering about how legacies are treated in the process. This is small subset of applications that have special connection to the school.
Based on the limited and anecdotal evidence I have seen and comments from other posters here, it looks something like this
High stats legacies (75th percentile and above) along with strong overall app: Admit without waitlist. Makes sense. They have a relationship with the school. Will most likely result in higher yield, will not impact score range in terms of ranking.
Legacies in the 40th to 60th percentile also with strong overall app: Put on wait list, irrespective of when they apply. Use them to fill up slots that open up. These kids are generally competitive, have the added bonus of producing good yield because they will most likely matriculate if they are pulled off the wait list and will probably accept a position on the wait list. If they are full pay, even better.
Legacies that are below 25th percentile and not URM: Wait list and later reject?
If 2) is correct, it is very different from how most of the Ivies treat legacies. These kids are generally more likely to be admitted in the ED round and may not get in during the RD round. This is based on feedback from various admissions consultants.
At the admitted student reception for our area at least 25% were legacies. We were more surprised that probably 75% or more were private school kids. These were only EA acceptances.