How to Get Into the Ivy League: Be a Legacy
How do you get into the Ivy League? Be a legacy applicant.
A friend of my blog, Lee Bierer, an education columnist for the Charlotte Observer and an independent college counselor, writes about Ivy League legacy chances in her latest column. Here’s where you can check out her take on Ivy League admissions for legacies.
It’s clear that legacies enjoy a better shot at getting into Ivy League schools, but it’s no a sure thing. A lengthy article in Yale Daily News a few years ago said that 30% of legacy applicants got accepted. In comparison, the Yale acceptance rate is only 9%.
What legacy applicants can usually count on is that admission officers will give their applications a closer read. That’s especially true if a teenager’s family has been a donor.
A story a few years ago in The Wall Street Journal concluded that 40% of Harvard legacies, 35% of Princeton legacies and 41% of University of Penn legacies are accepted.
Obviously this practice is affirmative action for wealthy kids. Is this fair for everybody else? Heck no, but it’s never going to go away.
Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com.
