“Legacy” Boosts Admission Rates at Elite Colleges

What do all the Ivy League schools, Georgetown, Duke, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and a host of other prestigious institutions have in common?  They all favor “legacy” applicants – those with a parent, grandparent, or sibling who graduated from the university. 

“The most competitive schools tend to be the ones where legacy offers the biggest admissions boost,” according to Forbes. “For these institutions, legacy admissions have historically served as a way to maintain ties with alumni, secure donations, and increase their yield rate, which can be beneficial for rankings and institutional reputation. A family’s commitment to a school across generations can be seen as a reflection of the institution’s selectivity and prestige.”

 

The boost for legacy students varies at different institutions. A civil rights complaint filed last year again Harvard University claimed that donor-related applicants were seven times more likely to gain acceptance to Harvard, while legacy applicants were almost six times more likely to gain acceptance, according to Forbes. “Recruited athletes, legacies, relatives of donors, and children of faculty and staff constitute approximately 30% of those accepted each year.”

Demonstrated Interest Advantage for College Admissions

When college-bound students are filing their applications, they’re likely worrying about whether or not they’ll be accepted to the schools they have selected. But there’s another side of the coin. Colleges, with multi-million-dollar budgets, are concerned about whether or not the students they accept will actually enroll as incoming freshmen. Colleges know that students often apply to eight or more schools, so they need to make an educated guess as to who will sign on as tuition paying students. 

Students can often increase their likelihood of acceptance by showing “demonstrated interest.”  This can be accomplished in a number of ways. A very productive way is by signing up for campus tours and then registering upon arrival. Colleges track student engagement and visiting a school and walking its campus can also give students a very good idea as to whether it’s a good match for their academic and social interests.  Another way to show demonstrated interest is by talking with college reps when they visit high schools or college fairs. These college reps have a specific territory and are often the very same admission people who will ultimately decide on the student’s application.  It’s wise for students to ask these reps for a business card and send a follow-up email, thanking them for their time and expressing genuine interest in their programs.

How To Calculate Your Net Price of College Tuition Online

Parents have an available tool to let them figure out what the likely cost would be for their child to attend a specific college. It’s called a “net price calculator,” and it helps parents estimate what their out-of-pocket cost would be at the various universities under consideration.  

To utilize this resource, parents can access the “net price calculator” on a college’s website and input the required information: student’s dependency status, number of household members, parents’ income and assets, and student’s financial information. At times, the student’s SAT scores and GPA are also required.  

 

Once completed, families are provided with an estimate of what their “out-of-pocket” cost would be if their child attended that particular institution.  The figure provided is the difference between the college’s sticker price and the likely grant and scholarship money that the student could expect to be offered.

How to Choose “Best-Fit” Colleges

College-bound students are often overwhelmed at the task of identifying the “best-fit” school at which to continue their academic journey.  With more than 4,000 colleges in the country, students should turn to available resources to guide their all-important decision.

One tool, that has stood the test of time, is the annual Best Colleges guide by U.S. News & World Report. In its newly released 40^th edition, the guide ranks the “Best National Universities,” from #1 to #300+, with details on such qualities as graduation and retention rate, student/faculty ratio, and financial resources. Even more helpful to students who know what they want to study in college are the specific rankings within the guide on “Best Business Programs,” “Best Engineering Programs,” “Best Computer Science Programs,” and more. U.S. News and World Report also offers an online search tool, College Compass.

 

Students can also turn to College Board, the company that offers the PSAT and SAT exams, to utilize its “Big Future” online search tool.  Students indicate the specific criteria they are seeking in a college, such as preferred size, location, specific major, particular sport or extracurricular activity, and housing options. The database then presents a list of all colleges that meet their requirements.

College Sticker Price May Now Exceed $90,000

The number of students who sought admission to NYU for this year’s freshman class totaled 118,000, according to University statistics.  Of this applicant pool, 22,000 applied “early decision,” with a commitment to attend if accepted. The overall acceptance rate was 8%.  

What some people may find baffling is that the “sticker price” of NYU’s Stern School of Business for the current academic year is $94,914. (Prices vary slightly among NYU’s different colleges.) This covers tuition, food and housing, and estimated costs for books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses.  For commuter students, the price is listed at $76,662.

 

NYU is not alone. Other colleges with sticker prices exceeding $90,000 this year include the University of South California at $95,000, The University of Pennsylvania and Brown University (Rhode Island) at $92,000, Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) at $91,000 and Boston University at $90,000, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the competition is fierce to gain acceptance to each of these schools, with an overall acceptance rate between 5% and 11%.

U.S. News Proclaims America’s 2025 Best Colleges

With the arrival of fall, each year, comes a newly released “Best Colleges” guide by U.S. News & World Report that ranks four-year colleges in America. The highly anticipated 2025 edition cites the same “Top 5” Best National Universities from last year: Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard, Stanford and Yale.  In addition, the same institutions from 2024 complete the Top 20 listing for 2025, although the order of some have changed: California Institute of Technology, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, University of Chicago, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, UCLA, UC – Berkeley, Rice, University of Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt.    

While the ranking of a school is not the only criteria that students, and their parents, should assess, it’s a valuable guideline due to the factors that are considered.  A great deal of data is utilized by U.S. News to rank nearly 1,500 four-year institutions that offer bachelor’s degrees. This includes peer assessment, graduation rate, financial resources per student, faculty salaries, student-faculty ratio, and borrower debt.

 

Since the top criteria of students in choosing a college typically revolve around academic reputation, cost of attendance, and return on investment, these are among the matters that U.S. News prioritizes in its rankings.

Top November Break College Tour Tips

November is a month when most New Jersey public school students enjoy several days off for Election Day, Teacher Convention Days, and the Thanksgiving Break. For most of these days, college classes, and the activities that surround them, are in full swing. So, it’s the perfect time for high school students to tour the colleges they’re dreaming of and find out what life would be like on any particular campus.

If parents can take time off work, it’s the ideal opportunity for a road trip. Most students attend college within a few hours of home, so the trip does not have to be to a far-off location.  Colleges in Washington D.C. and Boston are often on students’ list of potential best-fit schools, making these popular cities to visit.  Some Boston favorites are Boston College and Boston, Northeastern, Tufts, and Harvard universities. Washington D.C. favorites are typically American, George Washington, and Georgetown universities.

 

Even if students are on their own for their school break, there are more than two dozen four-year colleges within New Jersey that they can tour on their own, or with friends. Popular options are Princeton, Rutgers, TCNJ, Seton Hall, NJIT and Stevens Institute of Technology.

  

Students should always book a tour in advance, and then sign in upon arrival. Colleges keep records of student visits and look favorably on this data as a sign of “demonstrated interest.” When touring college campuses, students should take notes. Although at the time they think they will remember exactly what they are seeing, after touring a multitude of schools the details tend to get blurred.