<p>I'm wondering if admissions committees at selective colleges look differently upon legacy candidates.</p>
<p>For instance, would they favor a student whose parents attended the school and received a bachelors degree instead of another kid whose parents received a less selective masters degree?</p>
<p>Are all types of legacy children considered equally? or is there a pecking order: </p>
<p>Also to add another question into the fray -- how does being an employee at the university add to the equation? Does having a son/daughter apply to the same school that you work at trump legacy status?</p>
<p>Legacy plus father is President of the United States.
Legacy plus oodles of money given to the school.
Legacy plus oodles of money that is promised to the school.
Legacy plus oodles of money that could be given to the school.
Legacy plus lots of money given to the school.
Leagacy plus lots of money that could be given to the school.
Legacy plus father is a Senator, Congressperson, or local state rep who could affect the school's tax liabilities.
Legacy plus famous parents.
Legacy.
Legacy minus parent was kicked out of school for cheating, unless he became CEO of a Fortune 500 company.(in which case, go to #2)
Legacy minus parent was an ax murderer.</p>
<p>School have specific definitions for legacy. In most colleges, legacies are limited to those whose parents graduated from the undergraduate school. Law school, a masters, a doctorate, do not count. Some colleges do have an expanded definition for legacy that may include those other degrees.</p>
<p>Being an employee does add to the equation. Which employee could make a big difference. Again, it depends on the school as to what situation is better for chances at admissions. The rumor was that at CMU, legacy status was very strong because the college was working to strenghthen that element of the community. Sibling legacy was even a consideration. Wheras employee legacee was not as big of a deal because a lot of employee kids apply there, and CMU really likes to limit its Pittsburgh pool of students to have more of a national presence. This may not be the case at another university. In some small LACs, where the university community is very tight, employee children may have very strong "ins'.</p>
<p>As a Stanford MBA, I, too, wondered if legacy "value" was equal for a degree from Stanford undergrad, vs. MBA vs. other grad degree. At the Stanford info session, the adcom gave a very specific answer:
At Stanford legacy = parent with degree from Stanford, no matter whether undergrad or grad.
At Stanford, historical data have shown legacy applicants are admitted at double the rate of non-legacy.</p>
<p>I hadn't actually expected to get a "real" answer, thought I'd hear the "we look at the whole application, it depends," etc., etc.</p>
<p>That said, I would make no assumptions that it works the same way at every school. I would ask at whatever school(s) you have legacy from and you may or may not get an answer.</p>
<p>And, of course, as mini's post so <em>eloquently</em> indicates legacy plus or minus other key factors makes a big difference. I correctly assumed that my Stanford legacy plus contributions of regular but piddling amounts of $$ was not going to be an overwhelming success factor.</p>
<p>Different schools definitely have different approaches. Columbia specifically says that legacy status extends only to children of undergraduates, for instance. Wesleyan, OTOH, seems to give legacy status to siblings. As has been said, you can ask at each school; it's a pretty common info session question.</p>
<p>Legacy status (without money attached) is on the way out. No surprise - this is the first time in the nation's history that a significant nunber of minorities could take advantage of it.</p>
<p>"This actually surprises me a great deal. Do you have any data that clearly indicates that minority legacies do not fare well in admissions?"</p>
<p>Not one shred. Only statements from the adcoms and prezs at "prestigious institutions" that they are now de-emphasizing legacies generally speaking, and data that since 1970, there have been more minority graduates than ever before.</p>
<p>We do have data at some institutions (such as H. and W.) suggesting that they now have a smaller percentage of students on financial aid than in the past 30 years, at a time when "list price" is at an all-time high.</p>
<p>At Georgetown, my son's acceptance letter specifically referenced that they were happy to offer admission to a student who would continue his family's legacy (both his father and I graduated from Georgetown's law school, but not its undergrad).</p>
<p>Northwestern asked about siblings (my son's brother got his undergrad degree from NW) when it asked for legacy info...my son was also accepted there.</p>
<p>He also had legacy at Cornell, where his father earned both a BS and an MS...he was also admitted there.</p>
<p>(He chose Cornell.)</p>
<p>Of the three, I visited w/an adcom from Georgetown last fall, and asked specifically if legacy via the law school would count. The adcom made a big point of saying "Georgetown takes care of its own" and that given my son's stats (I ran thru them very generally with her), she was certain he'd be offered admission (and he was). </p>
<p>To my knowledge, neither his father (from whom I am divorced) nor I have ever given any money to any of these schools. My son was also offered admission at University of Virginia, where there was no legacy. </p>
<p>Three of the four schools would be "match" schools for my S, were it not for the fact that no school w/an acceptance rate in the high 20s and 30s can really be considered a "match." UVA was a "real" safety--because S attends a HS that is a "feeder" to UVA and his stats were above the "high" range...and we're in state...</p>
<p>
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which, in his day, was a pretty difficult thing to do.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I haven't specifically looked at Yale's historic graduation rates, but judging from Swarthmore's, it was much more common for people to "wash out" back in the day. Graduation rates have gone through the roof since the 1970s.</p>
<p>To follow-up on Mini's post about minority legacies, when I was an investigator for the Office for Civil Rights I had a case where the white valedictorian from a school was rejected while a minority candidate with lower, but ok, grades and nominally lower SAT I scores (20 points or so) was accepted. </p>
<p>My investigation showed that both students were in the minimally acceptable range for the school, but that the minority candidate was a legacy; she was recommended by her father's law partner who was a major fund raiser for the college and an officer in the University's alumni society; and the white candidate's SAT IIs were too low for the science major she had applied for. The minority candidate had applied for liberal arts. To make this whole thing even more interesting, the white candidate was a first generation applicant from Eastern Europe although her parents were well-off scientists.</p>
<p>Legacy is defined differently at every school - sometimes you'll find the answer on a school's website, but not always. Most often legacy means the parent received an undergraduate degree ... but other schools expand this to grandparents and grad school degrees (where applicable).</p>
<p>For UVA, for instance, an undergrad OR grad degree by a parent confers legacy status, which means that you will be considered "in-state" for admissions purposes even if out-of-state.</p>
<p>"I haven't specifically looked at Yale's historic graduation rates, but judging from Swarthmore's, it was much more common for people to "wash out" back in the day. Graduation rates have gone through the roof since the 1970s."</p>
<p>Drop out rates were lowest in the late 60s...for obvious reasons.</p>
<p>In particular I'm interested in the two schools that my wife and I attended:</p>
<p>Duke - I received a masters
U Chicago - wife received a bachelors</p>
<p>So does anyone have any insights into the two schools above for legacy children? Will my Duke masters put my kids on par with other Duke legacies?</p>
<p>Hey mini where does legacy plus father is a Senator mius he was kicked out for cheating fall in the hierarchy?</p>
<p>Anybody know what percentage of any given Harvard class are Kennedt legacies? Will the Bush clan be able to top them at Yale?</p>
<p>I looked into whether or not my alma mater gave any legacy preference when son was applying tp schools and was told no. He wasn't interested in the school anyway but I was a little surprised. On the other hand the school gives free tuition to children of employees - not that that would have helped me. But it does point out differences in policies.</p>
<p>Re Duke: Rachel Toor's book "Admissions Confidential" states that parental legacy does count, and that in cases of sibling legacy, kids who are as strong or stronger applicants than their sibs are usually admitted. The book's almost 5 years old though, so this policy may well have changed as Duke has beome even more selective since the publication date (2001).</p>
<p>Anecdotal only: just two students out of at least 10 from our hs were accepted at Duke this year: both males, both ED, one with very strong musical talent, and the other a double legacy (mom a BA/MA, Dad a Ph.D.) who was also qualified for admission by stats and GPA. Two kids, both girls, applied RD and were waitlisted (the #1 and probable #2 students); everyone else was rejected. I think the combination of ED and legacy status at Duke makes for a comfortable shot at getting in.</p>
<p>Both of the two colleges we asked said that a graduate degree from their university counted the same as an undergraduate degree from their college for purposes of establishing legacy status.</p>