It’s hard to think of a college admissions topic that sets more people’s teeth on edge than the issue of legacy admissions.
Admit it – don’t you resent the idea that you have to go through all this stress over your college applications, while someone else can waltz into a selective school solely on the strength of their family connections?
Well, here’s some news that can make you feel better:
Two researchers from Princeton recently conducted a survey of how well university students who had been admitted under preferences for athletes, minorities, and legacies did in their college careers. To everyone’s surprise, they found that the one group of students who clearly lagged behind their peers were the legacy admits.
So you can console yourself with the thought that even if Joe or Joanne Alum’s family can buy them a seat at Harvard, they can’t buy them a place on the honor roll. (That’s assuming, of course, that Joe or Joanne care about things like the honor roll.)
But for all the blood that the phrase ‘legacy admissions’ brings to a boil, it’s basically a non-issue. The advantage that most applicants gain from having a family connection to a school is very small. It has less to do with the school wanting to do a favor for old alums like your mom and/or dad than it does with your knowledge of the school. Because you’ve been hearing about the school all your life, you’re able to make a better case for your fit there as a student. You’ll also strike the admissions committee as being more likely than other applicants are to enroll if you’re admitted.
Schools can – and do – say “Sorry, no,” to the children of alumni and donors all the time. It’s in everyone’s best interest that they do so. As we once told a reporter for the Yale Daily News, “It’s less difficult to tell a highly committed, maybe wealthy alum that their son or daughter wasn’t admitted from a pool of 17,000 applicants than it is a year or two later to say, ‘Your son or daughter has flunked out.'”
If you can’t claim a legacy connection to your targeted school, don’t worry about it. It’s not a significant disadvantage.
If you can claim a legacy connection to your targeted school and are counting on that to win an acceptance letter – think again. You’re not likely to get more than a small boost from that connection. In the end, you’ll be accepted or denied on your own merits, as you present them in your application – just like everybody else.