<p>I think some of the people here have a very distorted view of the world. Because of my age, my profession, and my alumni status, I know a LOT of legacy kids applying to Yale. The admission rate is about 25%. I haven’t seen a single kid I would consider a marginal candidate accepted (and I have seen lots of non-marginal candidates rejected). I have seen a legacy get rejected and accepted at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford. I have seen a legacy get rejected and offered a super-prestigious full-ride scholarship at a famous state university (OOS). I have seen legacies get rejected and classmates who are arguably less distinguished accepted.</p>
<p>By the way, I would say the same thing about Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. A few years ago, a high-ranking Harvard admissions person told a friend (holder of two Harvard magna degrees, and married to the holder of two Harvard magna degrees, whose qualified-but-not-superexceptional daughter had just been rejected) that Harvard’s admission rate for Harvard legacies was only a couple of percentage points higher than its admission rate for Yale and Princeton legacies. In other words, the children of highly educated parents often wind up being impressive candidates for admission, and it’s hard to untangle any legacy preference from that.</p>
<p>A number of the accepted legacies I know were deferred EA and then accepted – that’s a pretty common pattern. But I also know two legacies who were accepted EA. Each was the clear top student in his or her class at a famous high school.</p>