Sibling Legacy

[jakers724]

How much does it help a student who has a brother at the university? And when the brother is performing extremely well there…

[gibby]

This from several years ago: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/legacy-2/

At Yale, legacies make up about 10 percent of the 2010-11 undergraduate class compared with 31.4 percent in 1939, he said.

“We turn away 80 percent of our legacies, and we feel it every day,” Mr. Brenzel said, adding that he rejected more offspring of the school’s Sterling donors than he accepted this year (Sterling donors are among the most generous contributors to Yale). He argued that legacies scored 20 points higher on the SAT than the rest of the class as a whole.

Mr. Brenzel made the case that low-income students represented an increasing size of Yale’s undergraduate class, even though they had less of a track record of success at the university. About 14 percent of the incoming class is supported by Pell Grant students, he said, saying that with respect to preferences, “the trend is down for legacy and up for underrepresented minorities.”

I’m not sure there is any specific data published for Sibling Legacy.

[T26E4]

No official stats of sibling legacies have ever been published in the +25 yrs as an alum volunteer. However, I assume that if the applicant were on the fence, the fact that another sib is already enrolled could either be a plus or minus – here’s what I mean. Let’s say the older sib was admitted from a previously unknown school, i.e. the admit factors were a little hazy but still enough to offer admit. Older sib comes to Yale and is failing miserably. Younger sib’s transcript/scores/rest of file – looks the same. Yale may not be as willing to take a 2nd chance – because indications are that the HS preparation isn’t enough, despite high grades. The opposite is true too. Maybe older sib is performing beyond all expectations. This will then give confidence to the veracity of younger sib’s HS achievements

Is it fair? Not really. But sometimes the committee members are looking for any sort of confirmatory info to decide tough cases.

[Bulldog2017]

I highly doubt that the admissions office has access to the academic records of a student for the time in which he or she is enrolled at Yale. That has to be some sort of FERPA violation. So, I’m guessing it doesn’t matter if the sibling is performing well or failing miserably.

[gibby]

That has to be some sort of FERPA violation.

^^ Nope: http://www.yale.edu/sfas/registrar/FERPA_Rights_Notice_2015.pdf

The University discloses education records without a student’s prior written consent under the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. Typically, a school official is a person employed by the University in an administrative, supervisory, academic, research, or support staff position (including law enforcement unit personnel and health staff); fellows of the Yale Corporation and non-trustee members of Yale Corporation committees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee. A school official also may include a volunteer or contractor outside of the University who performs an institutional service or function for which the University would otherwise use its own employees and who is under the direct control of the school with respect to the use and maintenance of personally identifiable information from education records. A school official typically has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for the University.



[Falcon1]

I heard it directly from an AO at another top institution that they can check how an older sibling is doing if they want. I don’t know if that pertains to siblings who have already graduated though.

While is certainly seems like there are a lot of siblings on campus at top Ivies (my daughter thinks there are a lot at Harvard), we don’t know how many of them are also direct legacies and if that was the heavier feather on scale of the younger siblings when they applied.

[jasishere]

There’s a family of 4 kids who have gone through my high school and all of them have gone to Yale for undergrad. This surprised me because the last two kids weren’t amazing (like the first two), save for a trip to China to volunteer at an orphanage (I think). They had rigorous course loads and did a number of ECs but didn’t have substantial leadership (like presidencies). No idea what their testing was like.
However, the youngest did end up getting the Morehead-Cain scholarship as an in-state student, so take that as you will.

[cttwenty15]

@jakers724, Your other posts state that you have a sibling at Dartmouth and prefer Princeton, do you also have a sibling at Yale or is it a classmate who has that connection (and possible advantage over you if you don’t apply SEA to Yale)? You would likely have a higher chance of getting in to Dartmouth ED rather than either Yale or Princeton.

[minirafa]

@T26E4 Isn’t that somewhat unfair? I have an older brother who is doing well at the university, but the performance of our siblings are generally out of our control- wouldn’t it be appropriate to evaluate siblings more objectively?

But then again, I’m not Yale admissions.

[shoremom22]

Younger sibling just got contacted for an interview so we are crossing our fingers! Interestingly, older sibling never had an interview so we were quite surprised when he was accepted regular decision. She has a very compelling essay and personal experience which I hope showcases her strengths.