Is it more likely that interview candidates are legacy students? I was a bit surprised to learn yesterday that most (90 percent) of the students who were admitted to Yale over the last 5 years were legacies.
That number seems very high. can you please share / link the source for this information?
Based on the information in the link below, only 11% of the admitted students in first year are legacies. It hovers between 11 to 14% for the last few years.
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Before they started to selectively choose interviewees, there was some speculation that legacies generally got an interview. That is no longer true.
Legacy admits have never been 90% to my knowledge. Back in the 80’s when I graduated it was in the low 20%. The number has steadily shrunk to where it sits today at about 12%. There was some fluctuation during Covid as a higher percentage of legacy admits deferred for a year and created a small bubble.
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I have a theory that strong applicants who are legacy at peer schools get interviews…
Where did you see this information?? There’s no way this is accurate.
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I think strong applicants in general get interviews. My sister, who is now at Yale, was from a public school (not in CT) and received an interview. I go to a private school near Yale. Many non-faculty and legacy kids also received interviews this year. I think in general, interviews are offered to students that admission officers are interested in learning more about/do not have enough information to make a reject/accept decision.
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Sorry for the confusion. I meant to say that 90 percent of students admitted from MY SCHOOL (top private school in DC) over the last 5 years were legacies. Apologies again!
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Now THAT is not surprising. Nor uncommon.
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Yes, not terribly surprising perhaps. Still a big number. Interesting to see how many stronger (GPA/SAT/ACT) students were passed over in EA in favor of legacies.
I’m curious as to whether anyone else has received an interview request in the days after December 1st? I read online that this was Yale’s internal deadline for interview reports, but my interview is scheduled for the 8th.
Deadline is Dec 9.
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Oooh okay. Thanks!
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I am sure there will be as many if not more non-legacy admits who have lower GPA/Test scores than many of the rejects. That’s just the way holistic admissions work. As a group, according to the AO, legacies tend to have higher gpas and test scores than the average applicant. I think the days of admitting “Winthorpe and Penelope” (unless they come with big $$$$) are pretty much behind us.
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Interesting thought, and certainly makes sense.
You said it. Yale needs to balance between recruiting legacies and its own competitiveness and perpetuity. If too many legacies, Yale would lose both diversity and its market leading position. Based on Niche, Yale is on the very top. If too many low-income but not so qualified admits, Yale got trouble too, since kids from elite families or feeder schools have invested tens of thousands of dollars more each year in learning, low-income family might have disadvantage the first when they were born in this regard. So, Yale’s more than 20% from the first generation of college admits have done pretty well. If most admits are high scores achievers, the depression rate might be too high. So AO needs to strike a perfect balance among all these factors.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned before that my impression is that the recent legacy admits to the most selective colleges from our feederish HS (which admittedly are pretty common, although I would not think 90%) have had the normal numbers for unhooked admits.
What I can’t see, of course, is how they rated exactly on things like ECs and recommendations and essays and such. I strongly suspect they did not typically get bad ratings, but did they get the best? I don’t know, but at least it seems possible that was where legacy preferences were doing the real work.
4.00 uw/4.8w 1570 with strong ecs and an essay that my counselor said was the best she saw in her career. no interview. should I be worried?
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Interview does not equal acceptance. No interview does not equal rejection.
That’s about as much as anyone can say. Good luck!
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With those stats, no interview might be GREAT news.
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Anyone else receive an interview WAY out of their region?
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