<p>Get a therapist. You posted for opinions on a public board.</p>
<p>ha, wow. i feel bad for you. this discussion was about legacies, not about you chancing me on colleges that i don't even have any interest in going to. just stop now, please. if you do not have anything else to say about the original post, then leave. you made your point embarrassingly clear: IL is supreme to everything, and i should go there even if i don't want to so that someday ten years into the future i can be rich and famous, and get my name on a video-game box. wohoo. this thread was about legacies, not about me and my college admissions decisions. thanks anyway for your interest.</p>
<p>You know, I really don't think that fit is as important as people make it out to be. For example, I had hoped for an urban/suburban school with a decent music program. But say I had ended up at Cornell--would I be all right? Probably. What is essential is that the best students can make do--find resources where there seem to be none--and that is why I feel 'fit' is really not paramount. Am I happy I'm attending a school that I think 'fits' me? Sure. Going to a school one likes makes everything easier. But would I have been all right going to a place like Amherst or Duke? Probably. </p>
<p>It seems that prestige generally translates to strong programs/resources across the board which helps top students do what they do best.</p>
<p>ok, well i'm all about "fit." i have plenty of options as far as prestigious schools that "fit" me, so i think i'm good.</p>
<p>Yeah - I'd agree.</p>
<p>thanks anyway though...</p>
<p>The vast majority of legacies are not from families that have given enough money to make a big difference. I've read that at many top schools, the admissions office doesn't even check to see how much the parents of a legacy have given. This is different for the "development cases," where the parents have given big money--and by that I mean millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars. For such people, I suspect that admissions decisions are negotiated, not made through the normal process. So, while lots of legacies at top schools are relatively rich, they aren't super-rich (their parents may be academics, or work for non-profits, or be doctors or lawyers but in smaller towns and cities, etc.). So this idea that the Ivies are crawling with students whose parents have given a bunch of money to get them in isn't the reality. Such people are a tiny minority, even among legacies. If what you are really worried about is a "snob factor," I would suggest that you should look less at legacy status, and rather at what percentage of the students come from prep schools.</p>
<p>wawaweewa!!</p>
<p>Hunt: you are absolutely right. I never said that the "snob factor", as you called it, was solely from legacies, but rather that that was simply one piece of the equation. And, again, it is not just the IL, that is only one example, though probably the most glaring.</p>
<p>are legacies solely based off of parents or can they be based off older siblings as well?</p>
<p>parents and siblings - though I'm not entirely sure if the two help equally.</p>