<p>Ah, the legacy at Ivy League schools. I have heard it is influencial in terms of affecting acceptance rates at all Ivies (considered a "hook), but how truly impactful is being a legacy on Ivy admissions?</p>
<p>My mother went to Princeton and my father went to Penn (lucky me :D), and I have also been considering these schools as a rising senior, but I do want to help clarify some rumors that have been circulating concerning this "predicament". </p>
<p>Firstly, I have heard that Penn legacy applicants are EXPECTED to apply ED to the college. If this doesn't occur, the applicant is essentially shooting himself in the foot for RD chances. Can anyone on CC offer some insight as to a) to what extent this is true (if at all) and b) if this practice is common elsewhere in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Secondly, as I feast on scraps of info from people who have gone through similar experiences, there has been some conflicting information about the true impact of being a legacy at Princeton or similar Ivies. As for the spectrum of these responses, I have received answers from anywhere between 5% and close to 50%. I am cognisant that the latter statistic is probably way off base, so naturally I seek your opinions on the question.</p>
<p>All ivies/peers that offer ED all expect a legacy to apply in that round. You want their loyalty and they want yours.</p>
<p>Princeton takes a way higher percentage of legacy applicants than the other ivies.</p>
<p>The bottom line on it is that ivy legacies are a well qualified pool, they often have strong gene pools, tend to be affluent and have attended top schools, had great sports coaching and were raised in families that value competitiveness. This in general will produce high stats kids with lots of interests.</p>
<p>Legacies without million dollar donations are not getting in with low stats, but they can get in with average stats for the school (good luck to an unhooked candidate doing that at an ivy today) and ECs not as over the top.</p>
<p>You loose your legacy hook if you don’t apply ED to the respective IVY (if ED/EA is available of course).</p>
<p>One boy I knew, who was a Brown legacy, decided that Brown ‘wasn’t good enough,’ and decided to apply to Yale SCEA. He was deferred (…and later rejected) at Yale. He was dumbfounded because he thought a 2200 would guarantee him admission at Yale. So he decided to apply to Brown RD (essentially as a safety). This time he was REJECTED and his parents, who gave about 50-200k, were absolutely astonished.</p>
<p>Point is if you don’t apply ED to UPenn…expect rejection :)</p>
<p>If you have stats in the middle 50th percentile for Princeton, I’d venture a bet that you’d have a great chance. (Barring the “skeletons in the closet” scenario, of course.)</p>
<p>Stanford is not an Ivy but it is a peer school that is said to give a boost to legacies. My daughters had legacy status and both had comparable excellent stats.</p>
<p>Results FWIW:
D1: Did not apply early. Accepted RD
D2: Did apply early. Deferred EA, rejected RD</p>
<p>This is not necessarily true but it’s my personal belief that applying ED to a school even though you are a legacy at another competitive school may help your chances.</p>
<p>If a university, lets take UPenn for example, sees that you are a legacy at Yale (they see information about your parents) and could have applied there early for increased chances but you instead applied to their university, then they would not only see that you want to commit to their university but also that you gave up a great chance at a highly competitive school for theirs. You would also have to back up that with mediocre scores at least because if you scores are 1800 then UPenn may just believe that you had no chance at Yale even with legacy and thus decided not to apply there.</p>
<p>This is my personal belief as that is how I would feel if I was an admissions officer and encountered such a situation.</p>
<p>I’ve heard (though this may or may not be remotely accurate) that Duke isn’t the same way–they know legacies are more likely to attend if admitted, so they often defer legacy ED applicants. Don’t know if that’s true, but I’m a legacy applying RD so fingers crossed that it is :).</p>