<p>Just let me show you an example. There was two international students</p>
<p>S1 : has a very good math skill and have a great aspiration to learn as a Computer Science. He is not a geek; he has also talents. He just knew about Ivies when he was in high school and started to prepare for English (because he really wants to learn in Ivies)</p>
<p>S2 : had an opportunity to learn English when he was young. So it was easy to get 800 on SAT Verbal section. Also he has a little bit Math knowledge. His skill on math was enough for get 800 on SAT 1 Math, SAT II Level 1,2. </p>
<p>When the time to choose students, obviously, admission office chose S2. Because, there is no other way to see the S1’s math skill because every student write on their essay “I am good at Math”. </p>
<p>The OP’s claim was baseless. I’m suprised any of you are actually arguing this - he just said a random rant without substance and people here are trying to make it sound reasonable.</p>
<p>HSisOverrated: The blog you quoted had its facts mixed up. Booklady gave you correct statistics. For instance, Penn, which is reputed to give the largest boost to legacy applicants has a 15% legacy enrolled student population for the class of 2011 ([Penn:</a> Undergraduate Admissions: Statistics for the Class of 2011](<a href=“http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/applying/profile.php]Penn:”>http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/applying/profile.php)) The 30% figure the article misquoted was the legacy percent admit which varies among the universities.</p>
<p>I interview regularly for an Ivy. The Legacy percentage is about 10%-15% at most Ivies, and these aren’t reserved spots. It usually just ends up this way and it makes sense given the quality of the legacy applicant pool.</p>
<p>What is the complex that so many people here have about the Ivies? It’s as annoying as the people who think that the Ivies are the only schools worth going to and that their lives will be ruined if they don’t get in.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to an Ivy (though some might lump my alma mater in with them for purposes of this sort of discussion), but I was right down the street from Harvard and had the opportunity to interact with people there. And yes there are undeserving legacies (keep in mind that not all legacies are undeserving), spoiled brats, etc, but most of the students there are not. They are perfectly reasonable people. None of the people in my high school who got into the Ivies, that I can recall, were legacies or brats…they were smart kids who had worked very hard and accomplished a lot.</p>
<p>Legacy doesn’t make up 30% of a class!?! Maybe the acceptance rate of legacies tends to be a tiny bit higher than everyone else, because, despite the misconception, legacy applicants are extremely qualified candidates; this is because the parents having gone there, know to a certain degree, what it takes to get in. And it isn’t weight as much as you say it is. I have Ivy legacy and played the whole ED card and got deferred. And I’m very high up in terms of class rank, GPA and whatnot.</p>
<p>Ivy admission is a crapshoot. They don’t accept the 1,000 kids with best grades and highest SAT scores. They don’t want 1,000 valedictorians. They want a well-rounded class; they want each student to bring something different to the table. At every school in the country, there are smart kids, and there are some not-as-smart kids. Even at the Ivies, there are students that always party and don’t work hard. Yes, the students at Ivies tend to work very hard, but so do students at public universities.</p>
<p>People care way too much about this whole Ivy League admission game. People are devastated and think their lives are over if they get denied from an Ivy. It doesn’t mean you are stupid, or any less qualified than someone who was accepted. The vast majority of Ivy applicants with perfect SAT scores are denied admission. If the Ivies accepted every bright student who applied, each Ivy League class would probably be over 10,000 in size, maybe every higher. The problem is, there is only a certain number of beds to be filled and seats to be held inside of a class before an admissions committee has to say “enough”. In the long run, wherever you go, you will have a great experience. My friend applied to Brown and Cornell and got denied from both (I am pretty sure). Now he goes to SUNY Binghamton and is having a great time.</p>