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.”
At Princeton University, legacy applicants are four times more likely to earn admission, according to Forbes. And at Notre Dame, a school with one of the highest rates of legacy admission in the nation, between 19% and 25% of the school’s incoming class is reportedly comprised of legacy students each year.
Additional “Top 100” universities that reportedly favor legacy applicants include Stanford University, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Rice University, Washington University of St. Louis, and Emory University.
However not all prestigious schools favor the children, grandchildren, and siblings of their graduates. Over the past decade, more than 100 institutions have eliminated the practice, including Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, and Wesleyan University. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is an anomaly as a prestigious university which never instituted a policy of favoring legacy applicants.
“Many states are instituting legacy bans for either public or private institutions, or both,” according to Forbes. “Colorado was the first to do so in 2021, followed by Virginia, Maryland, and Illinois. Just this fall, California became the fifth state to pass a legacy admissions ban.”
A report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) found that about 50% of institutions consider legacy to some degree, but the vast majority do not give it a high degree of importance. Some rank it as of medium to low importance in their decision-making process.
Susan Alaimo is the founder & director of Collegebound Review, offering PSAT/SAT® preparation & private college advising by Ivy League educated instructors. Visit CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362
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