Do colleges favor legacies?

Although being a legacy often helps students get admitted to a competitive college, many experts agree that the true value of legacy status is contextual – it depends on both the institution and the applicant.

Are legacies more likely to get into college?

A recent study by Harvard economists, using data from several élite colleges, found that legacies were nearly four times more likely to be admitted than other applicants with the same test scores.

Do colleges check legacies?

While legacy status can be a compelling piece of information, colleges really do not spend too much time asking about it. Colleges can include questions about legacy status in their supplements on the Common Application, and it's often just two or three questions.

Why do colleges care so much about legacy?

Colleges say that legacy preferences help create an intergenerational community on campuses and grease the wheels for donations, which can be used for financial aid.

What colleges don t care about legacy?

Some schools, though, are publicly rejecting the practice. New York University, Michigan State University and Bryn Mawr College all told The Washington Post they do not use legacy preferences and will make that clear on a survey, known as the Common Data Set, that had previously shown otherwise.

U.S. colleges divided over whether to end legacy admissions

Do the Ivy Leagues consider legacies?

The legacy program for undergraduate admissions at Ivy League schools is a practice where children of alumni (graduates of the same university) are given special consideration during the admissions process.

Is it easier to get into an Ivy League as a legacy?

Legacy admissions—which gives a leg up to the children of alumni—are the largest contributing factor to the overrepresentation of the top 1% at Ivy Plus schools. Legacy applicants from the top 1% are five times more likely to be admitted than students with comparable credentials, the study found.

Why is legacy admissions unfair?

Legacy admissions, in which schools are more likely to accept the children of alumni or donors, largely benefit white, wealthy students. Beginning in the 1920s, elite universities instituted the practice as a means to keep out Jewish and immigrant students from largely white, Protestant institutions.

What are the cons of legacy admissions?

The practice discriminates against those who are less connected but more deserving in favor of the more privileged yet less impressive. With all the semblances of an ancient aristocracy, the legacy admissions process imposes a castelike system between the names of the established and the names of the unknown.

What percent of legacies get into Harvard?

Harvard gives preference to applicants who are recruited athletes, legacies, relatives of donors and children of faculty and staff. As a group, they make up less than 5 percent of applicants, but around 30 percent of those admitted each year.

Do UK universities consider legacy?

Supporters of the elimination of all non-academic preferences point out that many European universities, including highly selective institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and London School of Economics do not use legacy, racial, or athletic preferences in admissions decisions.

Does Harvard like legacies?

What it has is a preference for students whose parent(s) attended Harvard. So legacy students are slightly more likely to be accepted than other applicants. But it is only a slight preference and mainly means that if two applicants are equally qualified the legacy will get in.

Does Oxford accept legacies?

Legacy admissions do not exist at Oxford, Cambridge or virtually anywhere else globally. It is a distinctly American practice. It sounds unusual and quite unfair. If you compare universities outside of America — even some of the best — there is a stark difference in many dimensions.

Do universities care about legacy?

Although being a legacy often helps students get admitted to a competitive college, many experts agree that the true value of legacy status is contextual – it depends on both the institution and the applicant.

Does being a legacy increase your admission odds?

Yet a quick glance at the statistics on legacy admissions suggests that the proverbial thumb in question must belong to Andre the Giant. A study of thirty elite colleges, found that primary legacy students are an astonishing 45% more likely to get into a highly selective college or university than a non-legacy.

Why does Harvard like legacies?

Given how Harvard and other high-status schools have valued legacy students, it's unlikely they will give up the practice easily, even with the Department of Education investigating the practice. These institutions say legacy admissions help foster relationships with alumni and promote an intergenerational community.

Why do colleges like legacy students?

Sign up for The Atlantic Daily newsletter. The most important rationale that colleges cite is a financial one: They tend to believe that giving legacy applicants an edge helps them bring in alumni donations.

How much does legacy affect college admissions?

One reason: children of alumni. Known as legacy students, these students are up to eight times more likely to be accepted at elite colleges, according to one estimate.

What colleges got rid of legacy?

Is it easier to get into Harvard as a legacy?

Similarly, students whose parents and family members were alumni of the institution were nearly six times more likely to be admitted. In 2022, Harvard's overall acceptance rate was 3.2%. The average admit rate was approximately 42% for donor-related applicants and 34% for legacies, the court document states.

Do aunts and uncles count as legacy?

Hurwitz defined “primary legacy” as having at least one parent attend the institution as an undergraduate, and “secondary legacy” as having a sibling, grandparent, aunt, or uncle attend the institution as an undergraduate or graduate, or parent attend as a graduate student.

Does Yale consider legacy?

Legacy students are those who have had a family member attend Yale, and are usually given preference during the admissions process.

How rich kids get into Ivy League?

Children of the top one percent, earning more than $611,000 a year, are significantly overrepresented in the Ivy League — more likely to attend selective private colleges than students from any other income bracket with comparable SAT and ACT scores.

Why do Ivy Leagues care about legacy?

In fact, legacy admission isn't just a non-merit-based advantage — it is the mechanism by which elite schools shield themselves from having to demonstrate their own merit. The first time I applied to Harvard Law School, I was waitlisted, then rejected. My mother had attended the law school three decades earlier.