What exactly does having legacy really mean?

<p>I'm a little bit confused with how legacy works. I'm assuming that it means that either your grandparents or your parents are alumni, and not brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles, right? (Please confirm.)</p>

<p>My father went to Harvard for graduate school, does it still count? But he didn't have the capacity to donate a lot of money - does that mean my legacy doesn't count at all?</p>

<p>I don't think I'm going to be leaning on my legacy very much when I apply this fall, but I'm just a little bit curious as to how it works as many threads here refer to it a lot. Hoping someone could kindly verify?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot =D And again, congratulations to the Class of Harvard 2009! You all have worked so hard, and you all deserve it. ^_^</p>

<p>
[quote]
My father went to Harvard for graduate school, does it still count? But he didn't have the capacity to donate a lot of money - does that mean my legacy doesn't count at all?

[/quote]
</p>

<ol>
<li>No</li>
<li>Yes</li>
</ol>

<p>Legacy only counts for undergraduate admissions when ur parent or grandparent went to the College.</p>

<p>At some schools - including Yale and Penn - legacy recognition is given to offspring of grad school alumni; not at Harvard. The grad school alumni are just too numerous.</p>

<p>As I understand it (Byerly can probably confirm), Harvard has the narrowest possible definition of legacy: a mother or father who attended the College. Grad schools don't count, aunts and uncles don't count, siblings don't count, grandparents don't count (though having parents <em>and</em> grandparents - or even further continuous generations back - is noted and could provide a very slight additional boost).</p>

<p>This is why comparing Harvard's legacy admit rate to the legacy admit rate at other schools is often an apples and oranges comparison. It also helps explain why, although Harvard's legacy admit rate tends to run relatively high (close to 40% on average), the percentage of the class comprised of legacies tends to be relatively lower (around 12%). And the average "objective" stats for legacy admits is the same as for the admitted class as a whole.</p>

<p>I think this year the legacy admit rate was 12%, but because legacies matriculate at a higher rate, they will constitute just over 13% of the class of 2009.</p>

<p>Last year, legacies constituted 15% of the class at Yale, but, again, Yale considers offspring of their (smaller group of) grad school alumni as legacies.</p>

<p>SEE: <a href="http://www.yale.edu/oir/factsheet.html#Fall%201995%20Enrollment%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/oir/factsheet.html#Fall%201995%20Enrollment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think they do at least informally consider siblings. My interviewer said he used to work on the admissions staff, and that the fact that my brother is currently going to Harvard "would help". lol, obviously it didn't help that much, because I got waitlisted. It makes me wonder if I wouldnt even have been waitlisted if it weren't for the fact that I had a sibling connection.</p>

<p>Legacy admit rate was only around 12%? I've heard so many people spout a much higher statistic (~40%).</p>

<p>Including cosar.</p>

<p>I meant to say the percentage of those admitted, not the "admit rate, in this context.</p>

<p>Ah, ok.</p>

<p>Is the admit rate around 40%?</p>

<p>The acceptance rate ... yes, generally. though I haven't seen an acceptance rate for the Class of 2009.</p>

<p>My father's friend Richard went to Harvard. Richard's father went to Harvard. Richard's grandfather went to Harvard. Richard's wife's father went to Harvard. Neither of Richard's twin sons got in.</p>

<p>Just thought I'd toss that in.</p>

<p>He's part of the 60% of legacies that were not accepted.</p>

<p>Does anyone know if stepparents count? My stepmother went to Harvard.</p>