<p>I have heard several definitions.</p>
<p>Is it someone who parents have/run some large corporation (like Pepsi-Cola, Wells-Fargo, Boeing) or political office?</p>
<p>(OR)</p>
<p>Is it someone whose parents are extremely well off (as in over $8,000,000 per year)</p>
<p>(OR)</p>
<p>Is it someone whose parents have attended an Tier 1 school</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses! Have a wonderful day!</p>
<p>A Legacy is someone whose parents attended the institution of higher learning in question. (sometimes goes back to grandparents). Namely, say your mom went to UCLA for her degree and your dad went to Harvard. You would be a legacy applicant at both Harvard and UCLA. </p>
<p>The money/ influence thing is what schools like to call “developmental” candidates.</p>
<p>It also happens that most legacy students are seen as being well off as well.</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily true, but the most extensive legacy families at the most exclusive institutions have maybe 5 to 6 generations of family at that specific institution. It’s unlikely that all of them qualified based on academic merit, so somewhere along the line some financial influence was in play.</p>
<p>At Dartmouth, a legacy is the child whose parent received their AB from Dartmouth. You are not a legacy if your grandparents attended the school. You are not a legacy if your parents attended the grad programs at Tuck/Thayer or the Med School.</p>
<p>The child of Jeff Immelt is a legacy at Dartmouth, because his/her father received his AB from the school. Many schools would most likely court Immelt’s kid as a developmental admit because of Immelt’s position as a CEO of a major corporation.</p>