I’m just curious. Why do (some) schools favor legacies to some degree? I’m not talking about those legacies whose families have given large bequests. What is the benefit for the University?
Many businesses give preference to repeat customers. The benefit to colleges is an increased yield and the possibility that a loyal family will become one who gives to the university in the future.
A few reasons:
- With need-blind schools, legacy students are much more likely to be full-pay. No school could afford to have most of its students require substantial amounts of aid.
- The parents are likely to be long-term donors, which will stop if their children are not accepted.
- Legacy students enter campus already understanding the college's norms and traditions, and help educate the non-legacy students about them.
Legacy isn’t the hook it used to be. Legacy applicants these days ususally apply ED to take advantage of that boost. And without the grades and test scores, legacy status won’t help, unless you are the child of a mega-donor.
Legacy admits can help with the yield as well.
It also makes for an elegant story. I have a co-worker who went to Tufts as did his wife, father, father-in-law, and his son. His daughter didn’t get in (she ended up at UVA instead) but I would’ve liked to have seen it occur as it makes for a endearing narrative.
From a college’s point of view:
- Legacy applicants are likely to be higher SES and lower financial aid need, so they help the college keep its financial aid cost down.
- Causing alumni to believe that their kids will be favored in admissions may increase donations.
Of course, if a college (particularly a public one) has a mission to offer opportunities for more disadvantaged students, preferring legacy applicants goes against that. The same goes for a college that wants to be as close to pure merit in admissions as possible; since legacy status is essentially unearned by the applicant, so giving it an additional boost (beyond whatever advantages in achieving merit that an applicant gets from being born into a family with college educated parents) goes against that.
Thanks. Our kid applied ED and is a legacy, and was accepted. Last year, a friend’s child, also a legacy, applied to the same school RD and was accepted with a very strange offer letter that basically said ‘we don’t really want to admit you but since your parents went here, we will’ (they declined the offer).
I’ve never given any money to my alma mayer, and I don’t think my friend has given much, if any, but it was obvious that it had some relevance. Thanks for clearing up why.