<p>Just because there is legacy preferance does not mean that all qualified legacies will get admissions. I know at son’s private high school, there is a very strong legacy card for admissions, but it does not guarantee that all legacy kids will be offered a spot. It just means that they get extra CONSIDERATION. For colleges, most admissions processes do use a point system of sorts to help along even holistic decisions, and legacies almost always get a few extra points thrown into the mix. But a strong applicant pool any given year, can mean many legacies still not making the numbers. </p>
<p>Princeton openly states that it gives alumni kids a leg up. And a close analysis of the numbers which P openly gives out shows that the legacies are accepted in greater percentages with lower stats than the over all admitted pool. But you still hear of kids with great stats, definitely HPY material who did not make admissions even with the legacy card. It is that competitive. It is so different when being a legacy meant an almost automatic in. These days there are just too many legacy kids and too many other kids, too many other college needs and wants for its student body for legacy to be as heavy of a weight as it used to be. At some schools, however, legacy can still mean a lot. Now if you want to get into a heavy card, development, especially loads of $$$s development will trump legacy every time and if you have both legacy and heavy duty development, that will likely get you in the door if you are a viable candidate at all, sometimes even if you are not.</p>