Penn Early Decision Legacy Acceptance Rate

Currently, the Ivy League institutions are estimated to admit 10% to 15% of each entering class using legacy admissions. In 2009, Princeton admitted 41.7% of legacy applicants—more than 4.5 times the 9.2% rate of non-legacies. Similarly, in 2006, Brown University admitted 33.5% of alumni children, significantly higher than the 13.8% overall admissions rate. In short, Ivy League and other top schools typically admit legacies at two to five times their overall admission rates.

Among top universities, the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University are known to weigh legacy status heavily in their application processes. The advantages that colleges offer legacy students extend well beyond admission preferences. Some universities have alumni councils that provide legacies with special advising sessions, pair these would-be students with current legacy students, and generally provide advice and mentoring for legacy applicants.

In cases where legacies are rejected, some universities offer legacy admissions counseling and help with placement at other colleges. Such students are often encouraged to enroll at a lesser ranked school for one or two years to prove themselves and then to reapply as transfer students. News & World Report and other media take into account only the SAT scores and high school grades of entering freshmen, a college can accept poor achieving legacies as transfer students without hurting its standing. A quarter of students admitted through Early Decision to the University of Pennsylvania's Class of 2022 are the children and grandchildren of UPenn alumni.

It's an astounding statistic, especially considering legacy students made up only 16% of this year's Early pool. Legacy students were almost twice as likely to earn admission as non-legacy applicants. But it's not like the University of Pennsylvania is alone in offering preferential treatment in admissions to legacy applicants. Ivy Coach is featured in this podcast conducted by Jacob Gardenschwartz and Anika Ranginani and it's certainly worth a listen.

While collecting exact numbers on legacy acceptance rates is very difficult at many colleges it can increase your chance of admissions by 2 or 3 times the amount of non legacy. Usually that means being a primary legacy where one of your parents attended that university, but sometimes even a looser connection like a grandparent or an uncle can make a small difference. Some colleges openly oppose granting any special status to Legacy and most notable would be MIT. Other colleges like U Penn and Cornell will only give Legacy a consideration in their ED rounds. This year I worked with five candidates who applied to highly selective universities. They all got into more than one choice but each student eventually was admitted to and I think is choosing to enroll at the highly selective university where one of their parents attended.

The sample Hurwitz studied was made up of 307,643 domestic applications to 30 of the most selective private colleges and universities in 2007. The study does not name the colleges whose applications were studied. Of course, this is the band of colleges in which legacy admissions could matter the most -- at colleges that are not competitive in admissions, the admission of legacy applicants does not take away slots from others. As a first generation / low income Asian American parent who attended an Ivy League university, it was fortunate to help my daughter use legacy status to help her gain admission to my alma mater.

I do think Asians have a significant disadvantage in the college admissions process and was happy to have legacy level the playing field. My main concern for her was would she be successful and happy at my school. Her tests scores and other credentials were in the top third of last year's class and felt she would do well. I think all parents should make that judgment call for their children. On a broader point, I do think more and more Asians will start to the see the benefit in legacy admissions as our kids come of age to counter-act the bias against them.

I don't want to be cynical because this country provides so much opporunity for those who work hard but it will be interesting if the white establishment will try to modify the rules to benefit them. Every April, when college acceptance letters clog the mail, the media duly reports the acceptance rates at colleges and universities across the country. The acceptance rate, calculated simply by dividing the number of accepted students by the total number of applications, does an imperfect but serviceable job at representing the selectivity of different institutions.

But in reality, even if you ignore all the complications -- of legacy students, recruited athletes, diversity, and financial aid -- no student faces that acceptance rate. Decades of research have conclusively shown that the primary effect of legacy admissions at elite colleges is to accelerate inequality by artificially increasing the number of white, wealthy students. At Harvard, around one-third of legacy students report a yearly family income greater than $500,000, nearly three times higher than non-legacy students. Forty-three percent of all white students at Harvard are either legacies, athletes, or somehow related to donors or staff. More importantly, early admissions, especially early decision, makes colleges look much better in rankings like the U.S. One metric used in the rankings is how many accepted students choose another college.

The fact that so few students choose another university over MIT, for example, demonstrates its prestige. (Or at least that is the logic.) Since early decision doesn't give admitted students the choice to go elsewhere -- as compared to regular decision admits who may have applied to 7 to 10 schools -- it makes a university look much more prestigious. Early decision also allows a selective but not top-10 school, such as Boston College, to lock down high achieving students that may not realize the power of their application without applying to several "reach" schools. In the college admissions process, "legacy" applicants are students with some kind of familial tie to a university.

An applicant normally has legacy status at a college if a member of the applicant's immediate family attends or attended the college, but at certain schools it might also mean a grandparent, aunt or uncle, and cousin. Some institutions restrict their consideration to "primary" legacy, meaning children of alumni; others are happy to extend it in any direction, and include both undergraduate and graduate alumni. Pennadmitted19.7 percent of early decision applicants to the Class of 2024 — breaking nearly a decade of declining ED acceptance rates.

Upenn Acceptance Rate Early Decision Legacy Of those who are United States citizens or permanent residents, 52 percent identify as students of a minority group, an increase from 48 percent last year. Similarly, 54 percent of admitted students identified as female, an increase from 51 percent last cycle. 10 percent of admitted students are first-generation college students, a slight decrease from last year's 11 percent. Of students admitted to the Class of 2024, 24 percent had a parent or grandparent who attended Penn. This year, all Ivies reported record numbers of Early Action and Early Decision applications for the class of 2023.

But every Ivy League school also reported early admission rate declines compared to the previous year. Legatt, who worked in admissions at Wharton before founding her company, explains that when the most competitive colleges made test scores optional, "More applicants figured, 'They're not going to look at this 1300. I can do it,' where they would have disqualified themselves in previous years." (Harvard's early-decision applications spiked by 57 percent.) For top-tier colleges, that's a feature, not a bug.

"A lot of elite institutions encourage lots of people to apply, accept a small number, and keep their acceptance rate low for prestige," Fiorentino says. Test-optional policies pushed Ivy League acceptance rates to historic lows, which only makes the schools seem more elusive and exclusive, which only makes more families want in. A 2005 analysis of 180,000 student records obtained from nineteen selective colleges and universities found that, within a set range of SAT scores, being a legacy raised an applicant's chances of admission by 19.7 percentage points. We have always been fans of applying early decision for the strategic advantage that it gives an applicant, but for legacy applicants, this may be even more important. Some schools only consider legacy status for early round applicants. This is just one example where legacy status in and of itself will not help a student who doesn't take advantage of other strategic choices in the admissions process.

And if you are not in the middle 50% for test scores and GPA for a college, legacy status is unlikely to give you a huge boost. But that combination of legacy + ED can seal the deal for an otherwise-qualified applicant. With less fanfare, that is exactly what took place a few months earlier. In December, a small subset of high school seniors took advantage of colleges' early admissions programs and received an admissions decision.

Those applying early to Stanford were admitted at the friendlier rate of 10.8%. Harvard accepted 21.1% of its early applicants; the University of Pennsylvania accepted 25.2%. By the time colleges sent out regular decision letters in April, these early birds had already claimed over 40% of the spots in Ivy League schools' new freshman class. Legacy preference or legacy admission is a preference given by an institution or organization to certain applicants on the basis of their familial relationship to alumni of that institution. It is most controversial in college admissions, where students so admitted are referred to as legacies or legacy students. The practice is particularly widespread in the college admissions in the United States; almost three-quarters of research universities and nearly all liberal arts colleges grant legacy preferences in admissions.

"There's a widespread perception that applying ED puts students at a disadvantage for financial aid. That may be the case at schools with limited resources, because they know accepted students are committed to coming, so the college could short them on financial aid. But like everything else in the admissions game, there is no hard and fast rule. At least one study on ed found just the opposite — that financial aid is more generous for Early Decision students because schools sometimes run out of money for regular decision admits". Part of the reason early admissions is so powerful is that selective universities must choose from a pool of qualified applicants that could fill the freshman class many times over. A high school student who already published a paper in Nature will likely get in through regular or early decision; a C student with an uninspiring application will be rejected either way.

But for the flood of "bright, well-rounded kids," a small advantage is a big deal. Harvardsaw its early action pool decrease by 7.7 percent, the first time since the fall of 2013 that the university's early action pool posted a decline. In all, 895 of 6,424 early applicants were offered early admission to the Class of 2024. The 13.9 percent acceptance rate represents a 0.5 percent increase from last year. The early admission acceptance rate has not increased year-over-year since 2013. Dean Fitzsimmons takes a global view to explain the decrease, pointing to everything from wildfires in California to school shootings and economic uncertainty to declining numbers of high school seniors.

Women comprise 51.7 percent of the admitted class thus far, slightly more than last year, when women made up 51.3 percent of the early admit class. It seems that Harvard tipped in favor of women who are interested in the physical sciences and computer science. This year, 57.4 percent of admitted students who said they intend to concentrate in the physical sciences are women, compared to 52.9 percent last year and 33 percent the year before. For computer science, 49.1 percent of interested students are women, an increase from 42.9 percent last year, and 29 percent the year before.

Last year's survey of college admissions directors by Inside Higher Ed found that 42 percent of admissions directors at private colleges and universities said legacy status is a factor in admissions decisions at their institutions. In today's format, high school students applying early send in an application in October or November and receive an answer in December or January -- shortly before the regular application deadline. Most programs are "early decision," which requires that accepted students attend the university without applying elsewhere. A minority of schools have "early action" programs that still allow accepted students to consider other schools.

As most know at this point the number of applications at highly selective colleges was way up and the acceptance rates consistently fell by approximately 20% or more. As an example, Harvard received over 57,000 applications, 42% more than last year. NYU received over 100,000 applications up 17% from last year.

The admissions rate at Harvard went from 4.92% for the Class of 2024 to 3.4% for the Class of 2025. At NYU the admissions rate went from 15% for the Class of 2024 to 12.8% for the Class of 2025. Keep in mind because of the timing of the pandemic last year most admit rates were up for the Class of 2024, but this years numbers are for the most part lower than ever before. This would effectively mean that the early boost, and Tulane's actual selectivity, is not what it seems. When the US News started ranking colleges in 1983, it quickly gained traction and colleges started to apply strategy to increase their rankings. Universities quickly recognized that a higher ranking would increase their level of desirability, prestige, and even, perhaps inadvertently, their endowment.

Elite institutions would attract more donors from wealthy parents seeking to give their child a one-up in the process, or from alumni who would now be prouder than ever before to attend their alma mater. Colleges started to manipulate the rankings (Northeastern is a prime example of this, and was one of the few universities where the then-President admitted to purposefully shifting strategy with the primary focus being to climb the rankings). In the past 10 or so years, Northeastern has climbed significantly in the rankings, resulting in increased desirability, more applications and thus, a lower acceptance rate. Even elite public universities such as the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia grant favor to legacy applicants. However, these two schools differ in how openly they advertise their legacy policies.

UVA created its own Admission Liaison Program where children of alumni can attend special events, webinars, and even schedule a one-on-one transcript consultation with the director of the organization at any point throughout high school. In contrast, the University of Michigan's admissions website does not make any reference to legacy status—the only statement about legacy admissions in buried in an FAQ. Of those who are United States citizens or permanent residents, 50% identify as students of color, down from 52% last year. Twelve percent of admitted students are first-generation college students, a slight increase from last year's 10%. Twenty two percent of this year's admitted students have a parent or grandparent who attended Penn.

Despite the disparity in acceptance rates, it is not three times as easy to get into Harvard by applying early; the applicant pools are very different for regular and early decision. But it is measurably easier to get in early -- an advantage that mostly benefits the rich and privileged. The single acceptance rate reported each year suggests that every applicant faces the same process; the inflated early admissions rate is a reminder that not every applicant is playing the same game. Dartmouthhas offered admission to 547 early decision applicants, for an admit rate of 26 percent. The College's official release notes that the early group includes record percentages of public high school students , first-generation students , foreign citizens , and students of color . The children of Dartmouth alumni represent 15 percent of the accepted students and recruited athletes make up 25 percent of the group.

The typical defenses of legacy admissions do not merely crumble upon scrutiny — they often reveal the pernicious, gatekeeping attitudes that allow highly selective schools to function as bastions of aristocracy. Johns Hopkins even reported an increase in donations after it scrapped legacy preference. Legacy preference continues to be a hot-button issue for applicants to highly selective colleges and universities. Whether the consideration of legacy status in the admissions process is encouraging or discouraging to the applicant, it is increasingly coming under scrutiny. Because private universities in the U.S. rely heavily on donations from alumni, critics argue that legacy preferences are a way to indirectly sell university placement.

Opponents accuse these programs of perpetuating an oligarchy and plutocracy as they lower the weight of academic merit in the admissions process in exchange for a financial one. Legacy students tend to be the white and wealthy, contributing to socioeconomic inequality. Legacy admissions makes sense not just because of potential donations. In my opinion, the main reason legacy admissions makes sense is because legacy admits are more likely to succeed at that specific elite college.

Through their parents, these students have rare insight into the workings of the school well in advance of getting there and invaluable guidance once they get there. Their families share with them valuable insights about the school culture, the resources, how to go about getting research positions/internships, common pitfalls to avoid etc, that most other students find out the hard way. Many alums stay in touch with the latest news so they can be a very valuable source of up-to-date information. I know this is what I did for my daughter when she attended my ivy alma mater and what I will do with my son if he gets into the school next year. Currently, admissions rates at selective colleges decrease every year.

This is partly because more students from around the world apply, but it is also due to students sending in more applications. (One survey found that only 9% of students applied to 7+ colleges in 1990, whereas 29% did by 2011.) As colleges solicit more and more applications to achieve a prestigiously low admissions rate, more students apply. This leads students -- freaked out by low admission rates -- to apply to more schools, which further reduces the admissions rate and perpetuates the cycle. Over on the West Coast, there are crickets from Stanford on the details of its early applicant pool and REA admits. The school announced last fall that starting with the Class of 2023, it will stop releasing admissions data until well after the admissions cycle concludes. The change was intended to reduce the "outsized emphasis placed on the admit rates at U.S. colleges and universities," according to the Stanford news site.

"By focusing on the admit rate, talented students who would thrive at Stanford may opt not to apply because they think Stanford seems out of reach," said Provost Persis Drell. I don't think OP should feel bad about being admitted off of legacy and ED status or that he's taking somebody's spot away, but he's not wrong that admission will be significantly influenced by the fact his dad went there. There will be plenty of students who worked just as hard as he did and will not be admitted. Rather than accepting unqualified applicants from elite backgrounds to glamorize their own name, highly selective universities should benefit the public good by accepting as many qualified lower-income students as possible. As reported in The New York Times, a sweeping college admissions scandal in 2019 involved bribery and cheating by parents to get their children admitted to top-tier schools. This situation was merely a recent example, and as some have pointed out, wealthy parents use other avenues to gain an advantage in the admissions process, such as legacy status.