<p>Wow, not going to try to get too involved, but I know for a fact that small LAC's care about legacies a lot more than universities.</p>
<p>Well......this particular university likes its legacies. Its all over the Alum magazine that comes. Funny thing is that while I was there for grad school I never even remembered that I was a legacy!!! To some schools its a bigger deal than others.</p>
<p>I think these are factors that are really out of one's control, and shouldn't be worried about too much. Being first generation is just one of many factors colleges can use to get an idea of the opportunities you've had and how you've taken advantage of them. If you are, great for you for being on such a path; if you aren't, I'm sure you've had your own obstacles to get over, or not, but in any case, you've done the best you could. Again, if you have legacy, lucky you; if not, I'm sure you have other great things going for you. I think college admissions is mainly about how far you've gone with what you had - and factors that are out of your control usually fall under the "what you had" category. Just do the best you can presenting yourself and your background to admissions - in the end, that's all you CAN do!</p>
<p>My dad went to UPenn, but I don't really have a shot anyway. It does help there though, where the percentage ED for legacies is around 30% whereas nonlegacies its like 5-8% lower. I'm not sure what the stats were for this year though, that was for the class of 2010.
Also though, I think that a lot of the time children of people who went to certain schools will be somewhere around as bright as their parents. I know that this is not the case all of the time, as I am not as smart as my dad was (test wise), but I think that we must take the whole legacy thing with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>take advantage of the situation and write about it in one of your essays.
don't try to ask forgiveness, show what has been learned.</p>
<p>
[quote]
At MIT, where I'm attending, all being a legacy gets you is a final read through by the director of admissions just to make sure they didn't screw up. They usually don't.
[/quote]
Strange, there's this kid in my school whose dad got his Bachelors, Masters, and PhD at MIT and is the dean of a department there and he got in... He got like Cs in his science/math courses and really didn't have any outstanding extracurriculars</p>
<p>I saw a NY Times article that indicated that faculty kids have a very strong leg up in top private schools' admissions, even much stronger than legacy.</p>