I am a Visiting Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, where I study the economics of higher education. https://www.koppelmangroup.com/blog/2020/3/4/harvard-acceptance-rate-for-legacy-students. There are far fewer spoiled rich kids than you probably think. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Legacies are also generally better educated/with better privilege. I do think that being a wealthy URM is probably has the biggest advantage. This thread has been locked by the moderators of r/ApplyingToCollege, More posts from the ApplyingToCollege community. There’s plenty of evidence that much of the labor-market value of a college credential stems from “status” factors such as these, rather than skills students learn in the classroom. Press J to jump to the feed. people are just not hip to williamthereader. All Americans were appalled last week by the revelation of schemes to defraud universities and game the admissions process. I have double legacy at BC but none of my siblings got in because my parents don’t donate a ton. level 2 Although students who are not from a legacy family are more likely than those who are to say legacy admissions are unfair (71% vs. 58%), less than half of legacy students think the process is fair (41%). Changing the practice of legacy admissions is no exception. Be the first to know.Get our free daily newsletter. I just moved to the LA suburbs and the difference is astounding. I’m sure most of those legacies had single parent less-relevant legacy but had good apps because their Harvard-educated parents provided them with a situation in which to flourish during high school. I agree with your last statement but I disagree with your assessment of the legacy boost. I think the college admissions process penalizes poor kids of any race. Regardless, having a parent (specifically mother) from one of these universities is statistically one of the best predictors for academic performance. If branding and networking, rather than learned skills, are what give elite college degrees their earnings power, then the schools have little incentive to expand enrollment and undermine their own exclusivity. This subreddit is for anyone looking for advice about undergraduate college admissions, including college essays, scholarships, SAT/ACT test prep, and anything related to college applications. Peter McPherson is president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Share your thoughts », 3 Ways to Support Black Students This Fall, Movie Theaters and Universities During COVID-19, Navigating Your Alt-Ac Career During COVID-19, Reimagining the Humanities for the 21st Century. Legacy preferences shouldn’t be one of them. Having interacted with students from these kinds of schools, I'd say they're mostly reasonably competent and smart. The problem is they face many more obstacles to earning a college degree than their more affluent peers. My counselor has told me repeatedly that those legacies are entirely worthless unless A) I apply ED, B) my parents have stayed involved in the alumni network (they haven’t) and C) donate money. Even the 40% or whatever it is at Harvard probably isn’t that much actually due to legacy. I just found out that penn state isn’t UPenn from this comment. But efforts and initiatives to support first-generation students and others cannot be fully realized if practices that give preferential treatment to those from families of multigenerational college graduates continue to exist. That starts with an admissions process rooted in fairness. One of the most striking figures about college graduates is that less than 10 percent of children from households in the lowest income quartile earn a degree, compared to more than 80 percent of those from the highest income quartile. Okay I thought something along the lines of what you wrote until the recent article that showed the enormous amount of legacy students at Harvard who had higher admit rates too. I’m just sad it’s my senior year and corona took away my chance at taking advantage of this stuff, but socioeconomic background makes a HUGE difference. And let's face it: while most legacy kids aren't really that special, neither are most other admits. Yup. But earning admission to a top school still confers a leg up in life.