Legacy applicants are more likely than non-legacy applicants to receive admissions offers at elite colleges, according to a recent study of 30 highly-selective colleges and universities conducted by Harvard graduate student Michael Hurwitz. Dartmouth has consistently admitted legacy applicants between two and 2.5 times more frequently than non-legacy candidates, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
While institutions define the term "legacy" differently, Laskaris said the Admissions Office identifies legacy students as "the sons or daughters of those that received an undergraduate education," at the College, which is identical to the "primary legacy" category in Hurwitz's study.
The study concluded that when primary legacy applicants apply early decision, they are 15.5 times more likely to gain admission into the sample colleges. Primary legacy regular decision applicants, meanwhile, are 5.5 times more likely to gain admission a figure that is slightly higher than Dartmouth's.
Although Hurwitz declined to reveal the schools he sampled, there was a great deal of variation between institutions' attitudes toward legacy applicants, he said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"There's a huge range," Hurwitz said. "Some schools appear not to give legacy students an advantage at all while others give them quite a sizable admissions advantage."
Dartmouth admissions officers review legacies' applications three to four times and give non-legacy students' forms two to three reads, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"The reason that we provide the legacy applicant with the benefit of an extra consideration in the admissions process is because one of the things that Dartmouth as an institution values is this connection with alumni," Laskaris said. "One of the reasons why our institution is so strong is because of this connection."
While the legacy advantage has remained constant at the College, the admissions process has become more selective in recent years across all segments of the applicant pool, Laskaris said.
"One of the misconceptions in this process is that we are admitting students that are not qualified to be admitted," Laskaris said. "Given the tremendous increase in selectivity we have experienced, all candidates admitted to Dartmouth have to pass a pretty high bar."
Among all 30 academic institutions sampled, a student's legacy status is used as only one factor in a holistic review process, Hurwitz said.
"In general, legacy status serves as an admissions factor that nudges highly qualified students over the admission threshold," he said.
While Hurwitz did not investigate colleges' rationale for higher legacy admittance rates in his study, he said he suspects that students' knowledge of institutional opportunities and the potential for increased financial contributions by alumni contributes to the trend.
"I think the motivation behind legacy admissions extends beyond the giving rate," Hurwitz said. The study also revealed a "legacy admissions advantage," in which the odds of a students with "any legacy" gaining admission to the sample colleges was 3.13 times higher than the rate for non-legacy students. The "any legacy" categorization in the study includes applicants who had a "parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or sibling attend the institution as an undergraduate or graduate student."
Upon receipt of a legacy student's application Laskaris said that she sends a letter to alumni parents to introduce herself, outline the admissions process and invite them to contact the Admissions Office with any questions. If a legacy student is not accepted for enrollment, she said she sends the families a letter to encourage "open communication" regarding the school's decision.
Legacy applicants tend to matriculate at a higher rate than non-legacy students, according to Laskaris. Alumni familiarity with the institution likely impacts the legacy's decision to attend the College, Laskaris said.
While the admissions process is need-blind, legacy applicants often require a lower level of need-based financial aid than non-legacy applicants, according to Laskaris.
Hurwitz stressed that his study does not claim that all legacy students are necessarily less qualified to attend their parents' college than non-legacy applicants. His study mentions evidence suggesting that legacies underperform and select less rigorous majors.
"The vast majority of the applicants at the sample colleges are exceptional candidates and the decision of whom to admit is generally challenging," he said.
Although the legacy admissions advantage in the aggregate is significant, it does not significantly impact the overall admissions process, according to Hurwitz.
"Only a small minority of applicants to the sample colleges have a legacy connection, so any possible changes in the admissions policies of colleges regarding legacy status are unlikely to impact the characteristics of the incoming classes or the number of acceptance letters received by a given student," Hurwitz said.
Steve Hamilton, who is the senior associate director of the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Admissions Resource Center, said that Penn's admissions office admitted 27 percent of its legacy applicants last year, compared to the school's 14 percent admittance rate overall. Despite this discrepancy, the office does not treat legacy applications differently than non-legacy applications, Hamilton said. Penn classifies a legacy student as "a person who has a parent or a grandparent who earned a Penn degree," according to Hamilton.
"We don't have a goal connected to application numbers," Hamilton said.
Although Penn's Alumni Admissions Resource Center does not advocate on behalf of individual students, the organization's mission is to "provide resources and professional insight to alumni families with children and grandchildren as early as seventh grade, focusing on what it takes to become competitive in the Penn applicant pool," Hamilton said.
"Usually seventh graders don't have college on their mind, but their parents do," he said.
At Dartmouth, the Alumni Advisory Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, which is part of the Alumni Council, meets twice a year to discuss matters of admissions and financial aid, including recruiting and interviewing, Laskaris said. The College conducts workshops for alumni families during reunions and some Homecoming weekends, in which they provide information on preparing for the admissions process for any institution, she said.
Despite Penn's relatively high proportion of legacy students who were admitted last year, Hamilton said he is disappointed by Penn's legacy admittance rate.
"I'm more concerned as to why so many legacies are turned down every year," Hamilton said. "I work in the alumni office and I want happy alumni."
Hurwitz's study, "The Impact of Legacy Status on Undergraduate Admissions at Elite Colleges and Universities," appeared in Economics of Education Review last month.
Admissions officials from the six other Ivy League institutions did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
