Legacy Students Up To 45% More Likely To Be Admitted To Elite Colleges

According to a new study, legacy status may matter a lot more in college admissions than previously estimated, offering an advantage of up to 45.1 percent.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that in an article titled "The impact of legacy status on undergraduate admissions at elite colleges and universities" (available for purchase here), Harvard researcher Michael Hurwitz was able to determine the effect of the admissions characteristic that differs from school to school -- legacy status -- on an individual's chance of admission.

Hurwitz found that previous measures of legacy advantage have been too low, and that applicants with any legacy have a 23.3 percent admissions advantage compared to those without any. Those who are considered to be primary legacies -- applicants whose parent obtained an undergraduate degree from the institution -- have an advantage of 45.1 percent, and those with a sibling, aunt, uncle or grandparent who attended or a parent who was enrolled at the graduate level -- secondary legacies -- are 13.7 percent more likely to be accepted than students with no connection.

Hurwitz's conclusions apply to the most and least selective colleges; legacy advantage is significantly less for students applying to mid-level colleges and universities.

Traditionally, elite schools have cited legacy preference as negligible, adding that students of alumni would have been accepted on their own merit and that they are integral for donor relations and fostering an intergenerational community. Studies like Hurwitz's shake the legitimacy of the first two points - and a recent book, Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions, questions the third point and other legacy myths. The tome also considers the legality of the practice, which some have argued violates both the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Still, Hurwitz notes that the actual legacy advantage, although considerable for individuals, does not greatly affect the applicant pool because cases of primary legacies are rare. Of the 290,000 applications he surveyed, just six percent held any legacy status.

What do you think of the legacy debate? Were you a legacy student? Let us know in the comments section.

Comments

[OB-GYN]

12:56 PM on 02/11/2011

Point-Counterpoint: One family's reality: legacy payback in exchange for being "of legacy":

Initially, tuition and fees etc to the legacy institutions, which for us (wife and spouse) were well into the $60,000 range over forty and fifty years ago respectively for undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Subsequent support by the "legacy" individuals:

a. Annual class donations (on rare occasions missed) to undergraduate and graduate schools
b. Hours of professional volunteer work via the institutions' Alumni Office. This includes undergraduate and graduate interviewing for institutions' attended.
c. Undergraduate Scholarship Drive donations
d. Institutional Annual Alumni Sport participation and donations (one institution and sport)
e. Private sector job at elite institution, which (surprisingly?) pays far less than private sector job outside of education and, as increasingly obvious, many city, state, and federal jobs and benefits. This imho from observations and discussions.
f. Most Important: Deeply felt and constant Rallying Cry and Banner carrying for Education in general, and our legacy institutions specifically. They are us.

Legacy: (leg′ə sē)
noun pl. legacies -·cies see legate*

-money or property left to someone by a will; bequest
-anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor
-☆ a student applying or admitted to a college or university who is a relative of an alumnus

*Legate: (leg′it)
noun
an envoy or ambassador

http://www.yourdictionary.com/legacy

[swf]

01:26 AM on 01/10/2011

story of a legacy candidate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ5Bvae03U0

[Forester]

06:34 PM on 01/09/2011

But how can we continue to get such outstanding presidents like the shrub?

[DanSc]

03:47 PM on 01/08/2011

Legacy Admi$$ions.

[brianartstar]

12:55 PM on 01/08/2011

I do not want to subsidize these schools through non-profit tax status to educate the children of the well off. We can discuss pros and cons of the legacy system, but I really don't want to pay for it through my local property taxes.

[MrUnlimited]

05:23 AM on 02/12/2011

"I do not want to subsidize these schools through non-profit tax status to educate the children of the well off."

The majority of the students aren't wealthy. Wealthy legacies are a tiny fraction of the student body.

[fem56]

09:18 PM on 01/07/2011

I heard it mentioned somewhere that the biggest boast is athletics not legacy.

[IWantTofu]

05:33 PM on 01/07/2011

The discussions on this board reminds me of an incident that happened many years ago in a bar near the Texas, Oklahoma border. Two guys got into an argument that led to a big fist fight over whether the University of Texas or Oklahoma football team was better. Neither man went to college.

[summer glau]

01:47 PM on 01/07/2011

I'm a legacy. I'm also just as qualified as my fellow classmates at my university (Yale.) I had straight As, ran various clubs in my high school, participated in Latin and Science competitions, and had 99th percentile SAT scores. Now that I'm at Yale, I have great grades and am important in various groups around campus. At my school at least, the legacies are just as qualifies as the other students. Intelligence is in part genetic, and I believe that I inherited most of my intellect from my mother. It's not crazy to think smart parents would produce smart offspring. I know that I've been very privileged, but my family is in no way blue blooded. My mother's parents came from a small village in Puerto Rico, and my father's parents are Jews from Queens. You shouldn't judge us all based on W, who would never be able to get into an Ivy league school today anyway.

[fem56]

03:01 PM on 01/07/2011

Thank you were expressing what I have experienced. Statistics are tricky. People have to look into all the factors.

[IWantTofu]

04:37 PM on 01/07/2011

No one is saying that all legacies are unqualified or less qualified. The article is pointing out that you would have an advantage getting into the college versus the non-legacy that has straight As, 99th percentile SATs, bunch of extracurricular activities and who was not a legacy.

[IWantTofu]

12:52 PM on 01/07/2011

You guys make it sound like the favoring of rich white kids from blue blood families through the legacy process is a bad thing. It simply prepares them for the privileged life they will live after college.

[MrUnlimited]

05:28 AM on 02/12/2011

Look, maybe some rich legacies unfairly benefit, but here's the thing: they pay FULL PRICE when they attend, which allows the university to subsidize less affluent students so that they can attend college without being crushed with debt.

[FiredUpRTG]

12:11 PM on 01/07/2011

Bush/Yale, McCain/Annapolis: and people complain about affirmative action admission of unfortunate students with real potential (but no legacy money).

[seustis]

09:46 AM on 01/07/2011

Revolutionary thought: children of parents who went to elite colleges may actually be smart. Before passing judgment on these students, look to see whether they also got into other elite universities in addition to the school his/her parent(s) attended. I'm not saying that there aren't other factors going on, but there may be some confounding effect because normally smart parents have smart kids.

[DrSnuggles]

01:32 PM on 01/07/2011

Absolutely correct, there are a lot of questions I have about these suspicious statistics. To get a real picture I guess I have to buy this guys book.

Also, the title. Legacy students UP TO 45% more likely to be admitted to elite colleges. Granted, I'm guessing that this is to exemplify the point that it depends on the type of legacy you are, but still...

[IWantTofu]

05:01 PM on 01/07/2011

Revolutionary thought: children of parents who went to elite colleges are likely to come from the upper end of the income spectrum. They have had greater advantages versus kids from poor or middle class homes. With all that going for them, when there is a tie with a non-legacy applicant from a less priviledged background, they get an advantage.

Many legacies at these elite schools are multigenerational legacies, going back to a time when these schools were predominantly white. As a result, giving an advantage to the legacies versus the non-legacies results in non-legacies who I would suspect woudl tend to be less white at these elite schools having to be distinctly better to get in. I'm not trying to say that on average legacies are less smart. You figure it out.

[summer glau]

11:43 AM on 01/08/2011

While most legacies are indeed white, there are certainly minority legacies who benefit from the system. I am a legacy to my school through my Puerto Rican mother. One of my best friends is a double legacy, and both of his parents are black. Another good friend is a legacy through her Mexican mother. Schools are starting to boast that they are seeing more and more minority legacies as the children of their first minority students come of age. The faces of legacies are changing. Just a thought.

[checkmoot]

09:36 AM on 01/07/2011

Two famous legacies come to mind. Does anyone think that George Bush would have made it to both Yale and Harvard wothout Daddy ? And that McCain would have been accepted at Annapolis unless pops was an Admiral ?? And be allowed to graduate, even at the bottom of his class ?

[fem56]

03:09 PM on 01/07/2011

Over 40 or 50 or more years ago! Things have changed much. I remember going to visit Lehigh that has an incredibly strong alumni base. I think the same is true at a lot of other universities that are in their league-top schools but not tip top like Yale. I have no doubt they only accept strong students but being legacy probably doesn't hurt much. On the other hand one of things I loved about the school was the school spirit thanks to the strong alumni.

[thegreenhornet]

09:20 AM on 01/07/2011

Gosh. I am sure all of the rich white kids are happy the supreme court left this aspect of college admissions alone. It decided that universities could not award points for minority status (that would be constitutionally infirm) but could award points for legacy status (that just protects the poor underprivileged rich people who have such a hard life). It allows universities to use the SAT and other tests that have never been bi-racially or multiculturally validated. After all, the only way to do that would be to admit everyone who applies and then test them after their first year to see if the test scores match up with the grades. At some point the American public will have enough of this nonsense and like health care, will decide that all Americans are entitled to a college education.

[stop the politics]

09:37 AM on 01/07/2011

If you do not like the SAT as an admission standard, what do you propose?

[senseandnonsense]

09:57 AM on 01/07/2011

Do you know anyone with ability who has been prevented from attending college?

[BlairCase]

09:09 AM on 01/07/2011

Most legacy students are not from rich familes. The ones I know are the children of school teachers, federal employees or military officers. Until recently, I lived in a area that is predominantly Hispanic, so most of the legacies I knew were members of a minority group.

[Agent 21]

09:39 AM on 01/07/2011

Notice the article is referring to ELITE schools. I'm sure the legacies you know are going to UT or A&M since it's obvious you are from TX. Yes, I know about the altering of the legacy rules for UT to diversify the student body, since I'm from TX as well, and most would be Hispanic considering the demographics of the state, but this article deals with ivy league admissions. It's in the headline of the article. (also point in fact, a few years ago even being Hispanic and a legacy could not get you into UT both of which I am and I was within the top 30% of my high school class) Your point is irrelevant to this article. It's interesting, but irrelevant.

[ixington]

12:23 PM on 01/07/2011

If you had any wisdom, you wouldn't speak about that which you do not know. The majority of students at ivy league schools come from modest backgrounds, including most students with "legacy status".

[Bullitt08]

08:58 AM on 01/07/2011

The envy is really disgusting.

Good parents try to give their children the best educational opportunities that they can.
They also use personal connections to help their families and friends.
These attributes are not exclusive to the wealthy.

The "prestigious" schools rely heavily on legacy donations and endowments without which they would have to rely almost exclusively on tuition to operate. This would make these schools even less accessible to the average student. Legacy students are less likely to rely on scholarships thus freeing that money for students in need.

Get real people.

Who do you think founded Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Stanford, etc? Ditch diggers and maids?

[TechYes]

09:06 AM on 01/07/2011

"Facts are stubborn things" as John Adams pointed out. And the facts here are that legacy students get into prestigious schools at a much higher rate than students without those connections. Some might even call it affirmative action for rich, white kids.

[senseandnonsense]

09:59 AM on 01/07/2011

So, be better than the legacy students! They will end up as your employees.

[Annieke]

09:24 AM on 01/07/2011

The whole idea of legacy undermines that little thing that is at the foundation of the American society: social upward mobility.

[CPAwADD]

09:30 AM on 01/07/2011

Which is becoming more illusory!

[checkmoot]

09:46 AM on 01/07/2011

With a low estate tax and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a small minority the U.S. is rapidily turning into a country ruled by a hereditary aristocracy. See "Oligarchy".