As a former admissions officer at highly selective institutions, I am going to unpack the mysteries of legacy admissions at the most selective colleges and universities in the country. After reading this piece you will understand how and why legacy students are affirmed in the college admissions process and the value of a college’s institutional advancement pursuits.
The Scaffold of Legacy
First, let’s quickly define what a legacy is. A “legacy” is an applicant to a college who has had a family member graduate from that institution, it does not matter who it is. So if your second cousin graduated from the undergraduate institution at Yale University, then you have a legacy at Yale. Now the strength of a legacy differs depending on the relationship. Typically, the strongest form of legacy is when a parent or guardian has attended the school (especially when both attended the institution), followed by grandparents and then everyone else.
Legacy, the College Admissions Process and Colleges That Do Not Consider Legacy In Their Process
In my opinion, even at colleges that say they do not consider legacy a part of their process, a student with a legacy status matters but here is the caveat. The legacy status matters when the family has significance to the college. What does this mean? Typically, it can imply the family could have a significant donation history with the college, a parent or guardian works or has worked at the college, the family has given a lot of their time to the college (alumni interviewer, hosted students for internships, etc), the family happens to be incredibly predominate in their field (celebrity, CEO, etc), both parents attended the institution, there is a family member on the board of directors, etc. There can be such nuance here and it can be incredibly complicated when colleges make certain decisions. For example, let’s say we have 2 pairs of families where both parents graduated from the institution and do not donate to their alma mater. Their children apply to the college and hypothetically let’s say one legacy student is admitted and one is not. It’s hard to read why a student who has a legacy was admitted or not. For example, one student who was admitted could have applied early decision and the other regular decision, and as we all know, it is easier to be admitted to any college when applying early decision; or let's say one student was just not an appropriate candidate for admission and the other student was overtly so - legacy does not overwrite admissibility. A college or university will never admit a student who they think will not be successful at the college even when the family has donated a significant amount of money to the college because that is quite simply a disservice to that student and that family. Even simpler put, the admissions committee just happened to enjoy that student’s application application and they just happened to be a legacy or conversely, the admitted student in question had a grandfather who used to be a former board president at the college. It’s important to remember that colleges are admitting a class of students and students are not admitted for any one reason; sure, there might be one element that might lift their candidacy into the admit but the student still must possess the underlying qualities and attributes that the college wants to see in every student that they ultimately admit and hopes matriculate in the fall.
The Value of Not Being a Legacy Applicant
With all that being said, families who are not legacy could have significant value to the college for almost every reason why a legacy student might be valuable as I listed in the section above. Every college, or institution, has something called an advancement office that may “flag” parents for philanthropic interests - the parents might be high up at a place like Google, could be Head of School at an important high school that matters to the institution, or might be a noble prize winner. Now, these accolades may draw interest in the college, but again, a college won’t admit if the student isn’t an appropriate candidate or a right fit, however, these advancement opportunities might be the very thing that could tip a student into the admitted class or not; it just depends on the value the advancement office and committee place on this student’s candidacy and the potential legacy the family may bring. Schools do not often share their exact decision-making with college counselors or curious parents, and often share half-truths to avoid conflation; something that is typical among college admissions since decisions and thought processes can be semantic depending on the applicant at hand; so while it is hard to understand the decision or situation when you don’t have the context of that specific admission decision, the explanation is still very straightforward for those who do understand; they don’t often share this information because the thought processes and decisions do not always directly apply on a case by case basis even if, on the surface, the situation might be the same to someone outside the realm of that specific admissions office. With that being said, in my professional opinion, colleges that say they don’t consider legacy as a part of their admissions process, at times, are telling a half-truth. Colleges do care about legacy, but again, they are considering that legacy applicant more closely because of the advancement opportunities that are there, which also applies to families who do not have a legacy and have or don’t have significant ties to the college.
Why Do College’s Pursue Advancement in the Admissions Process
It’s really quite simple to understand the importance of these institutional endeavors when you actually think about it. These pursuits keeps the light on at night! While every prospect does not always turn out in the monetary investment a college might hope for, it allows for the potential to fund scholarships, sport teams, to build new facilities, hirer more professors for each department, among a variety of other important project areas that might be specific to this application cycle; since what a college is looking for and what it needs can change from cycle to cycle. Why does this matter? BECAUSE, it will make more students want to go there because of access of resources, the abundance of support from professors, the beautiful art buildings and all of the other wonderful aesthetic features prospective applicants are looking for.
Legacy or Advancement is Known As Something Called an “Institutional Priority”
I am going to put out a few pieces over the next few weeks that will leave everyone with a greater understanding surrounding the sensitive topic of “institutional priorities” (meaning: legacy, athletics, diversity, music, etc). They detail how these particular “priorities” are affirmed in the college admissions process, address the challenges that these different groups face in the committee process, and mythbust all of the rumors you hear about each of these categories. They will leave you with an incredible understanding of the importance of these different buckets of people and why they are so complicated to understand from school to school, year to year. Stay tuned for this series and the continuation of the “College Admissions Cookbook: Not Everyone’s Slice of Cake!” If you enjoyed this content please give this post a like and/or follow my account since it helps out a lot. Thank you for your support!
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