Based on entries on collegedata.com (which are subsets of common data sets), specifically “Relation with Alumnus” under Admissions:
Type Total Legacy
Used NotUsed Unknown
All 2029 889 794 346
43.8% 39.1% 17.0%
Public 595 181 362 52
30.4% 60.8% 8.7%
Private 1211 696 364 151
57.4% 30.0% 12.5%
For 217 12 68 137
Profit 5.5% 31.3% 63.1%
It’s interesting how many public colleges consider legacy.
States (37 of them) which have public colleges that consider legacy (not all colleges in these states consider legacy):
AK AL AR CO CT
DE FL GA IN KY
LA MA MD ME MI
MN MO MS NC NE
NH NJ NY OH OK
OR PA RI SC TN
TX UT VA VT WA
WI WV
States and other jurisdictions (15 of them) where no public college is listed as considering legacy (but a few are unknown due to no entry for that in collegedata.com):
AZ CA DC HI IA
ID IL KS MT ND
NM NV PR SD WY
That’s really interesting. It also fits with the fact that the flagships of the states that consider legacies are all within the list of public school to which the top 1% send their kids (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html).
Interestingly, though, even states which have no legacy preference have a very large proportion of the richest kids in their flagship universities, like UIUC, Arizona, California, and some others. Then again, unless you’re looking at Engineering, acceptance to UIUC for a kid with a decent GPA and SAT score is not difficult, and these are easy enough to achieve for an average student with good financial resources, but extremely difficult for an average student who is also lower middle class or poorer. Also, Illinois has a large number of cheaper public universities, as does California.
Corrected table because a few colleges had empty public/private/for-profit information.
Type Total Legacy
Used NotUsed Unknown
All 2029 889 794 346
43.8% 39.1% 17.0%
Public 595 181 362 52
30.4% 60.8% 8.7%
Private 1217 696 364 157
57.2% 29.9% 12.9%
For 217 12 68 137
Profit 5.5% 31.3% 63.1%
I find it interesting that any for-profit schools consider legacy. Don’t they take pretty much anyone who can pay, or bring government grants and loans?
@OHMomof2 I thought so as well. It turns out that there are for-profit universities that are selective. But evudently some people are ignorant and naive enough to believe that a school called “American Institute of Alternative Medicine”, which is only accredited by the “Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine” is a respectable institution of higher education. “Hey mom, I was just accepted to the American Institute of Alternative Medicine!! I beat out five aging hippies, three suburban moms who were into New Age stuff, some 19 year old kids who were still into Goth, and a couple of big Alex Jones fans! Aren’t you proud of me?!”
What really surprises me about those stats is that most for-profits are barely 20 years old, so how many of them have graduates whose children are old enough to be going to college.
PS. My favorite name for a for-profit is “National University College”. They’re not even trying, for Heaven’s sake! It looks like the sort of name you see on a fake diploma. I guess that they’ll establish the “International University College School” next.
Yes, some for-profit schools are selective. But most of those that are selection are not that selective. Here are some admission averages, ranges, and rates from some of those that consider legacy:
Post University: 2.68 HS GPA, 19 ACT, 63% admit rate
School of Visual Arts: 3.34 HS GPA, 21-27 ACT range, 74% admit rate
LIM College: 3.04 HS GPA, 16-26 ACT, 78% admit rate
Five Towns College: median HS GPA is in 3.00-3.24 range, 62% admit rate
Research College of Nursing: 3.53 HS GPA, 24 ACT, 73% admit rate
Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising: Los Angeles: 2.90 HS GPA, 39% admit rate
"That’s really interesting. It also fits with the fact that the flagships of the states that consider legacies are all within the list of public school to which the top 1% send their kids (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html).
Interestingly, though, even states which have no legacy preference have a very large proportion of the richest kids in their flagship universities, like UIUC, Arizona, California, and some others. Then again, unless you’re looking at Engineering, acceptance to UIUC for a kid with a decent GPA and SAT score is not difficult, and these are easy enough to achieve for an average student with good financial resources, but extremely difficult for an average student who is also lower middle class or poorer. Also, Illinois has a large number of cheaper public universities, as does California."
@MWolf…very true with your above statements!
Colleges admit legacies for a practical reason. To fund the endowments that bring in top academic talent. Fund research thst drives grants and also helps students get that coveted research opportunity everyone talks about on cc. And most importantly it gives them the funds to offer financial aid, need based scholarships and merit aid.
It’s not a perfect system. And I or not my family did not benefit from this process. Actually the opposite. But I get it. And it’s a lot of misplaced anger imho. The grads fund the future and help maintain the quality of the school. It’s ok. And I would venture to guess many are highly qualified.