Legacy status can provide an admissions advantage, but the benefit varies dramatically by institution and is never a guarantee.
Some highly selective schools give meaningful weight to legacy applicants, while others have eliminated the practice entirely.
Perhaps most importantly, legacy status cannot overcome a weak application or an overly competitive major choice—and families who overvalue their legacy connection often face disappointing outcomes. For comprehensive guidance on building a competitive application regardless of legacy status, explore our top-tier college application tips to maximize your chances.
What Exactly Qualifies as Legacy Status for College Admissions?
Legacy status typically means having a parent who graduated from the undergraduate program of a particular college or university. But not all family connections carry equal weight.
This is how veteran college admissions expert Jamie Berger comments on the legacy status:
“At some colleges, it matters a lot. At some point, they claim it doesn’t matter at all anymore.
The legacy that helps the most is if the parent went to the undergraduate school of that college. Colleges have always favored the children of graduates of the school, less so with graduate school, more with the same undergraduate program. That’s considered the more favorable legacy.”
This distinction matters enormously. A parent who earned their MBA from Harvard Business School provides far less legacy advantage for their child’s undergraduate application than a parent who completed their bachelor’s degree at Harvard College. Some institutions also recognize grandparent or sibling connections, but these are generally considered secondary legacies with diminished weight.
Before assuming any advantage, families should verify the specific legacy policy at each target school.
Which Top Colleges Still Consider Legacy Status, and Which Have Dropped It?
The landscape of legacy admissions is shifting. Growing criticism about fairness and equity has prompted some institutions to eliminate legacy preferences entirely, while others maintain the practice as part of their tradition and alumni relations strategy.
According to Jamie, “Some schools are dropping legacy slowly. There are a lot of arguments that it’s unfair.” Schools like MIT, Amherst, and Johns Hopkins have publicly ended legacy preferences. Carnegie Mellon and several other institutions have followed suit.
However, many Ivy League schools and highly selective universities continue to consider legacy as one factor among many in holistic review. The key is that policies vary widely and change over time.
“It’s on a school-by-school basis—how much it matters,” Berger emphasizes. This research step is important for families hoping to leverage legacy status strategically.
Can Legacy Status Help If My Student’s Grades or Test Scores Are Slightly Below Average?
Legacy status is considered a “hook” in college admissions. But the operative word is “qualified.”
The Great College Advice Family Handbook frames the question this way: “Are your grades and test scores within the range that the university generally accepts? If your test scores are slightly below the 50% range, do you have a ‘hook’ that makes you appealing to admissions? To be specific, are you an ethnic minority, first-generation college student, recruited athlete, or the child of an alum?”
Being the child of an alum is explicitly listed alongside other hooks. For students whose credentials fall slightly below a school’s median but still within a reasonable range, legacy status may provide the marginal boost needed for admission.
However, hooks cannot perform miracles. A student with a 3.2 GPA applying to a school where admitted students average 3.9 won’t be saved by legacy status. The hook helps at the margins; it doesn’t rewrite the fundamental qualifications equation.
Should Legacy Applicants Apply Early Decision to Maximize Their Advantage?
Early Decision can amplify a legacy advantage when the circumstances are right. The binding commitment signals serious intent, and admissions offices can count on yield from ED acceptances.
Statistically, the Early Decision advantage is significant. Many highly selective colleges accept as much as 30-50% of their entire freshman class in the ED process, and usually, the pool of ED applicants is smaller than the regular pool.
But Early Decision is only appropriate under specific conditions. Great College Advice advises students to apply ED only when:
- The college is genuinely the student’s first choice. “Students must ask themselves, ‘If I got into every college on my list, would I choose to go to this particular school?'” If the answer isn’t a clear yes, ED is premature.
- The student has a reasonable chance of admission with their current profile.
- The family can afford to attend without comparing financial aid packages. As Jamie Berger notes, “Early decision favors families who can pay the full cost.” Every family considering ED should run the school’s Net Price Calculator first to understand their likely out-of-pocket costs.
Does Legacy Status Matter If I’m Applying to a Highly Competitive Major?
Here’s where many legacy families make costly miscalculations. Legacy status typically provides less—or no—benefit when applying to capacity-constrained or highly competitive majors.
Great College Advice counselors have seen many examples over the years of legacy students who applied early decision to highly competitive majors like engineering at some of the most selective schools in the country, like Stanford and Emory, only to be rejected outright. In those cases, families did not make the most strategic use of their legacy status.
At schools with selective programs within the university (engineering, computer science, business, nursing), the major-specific competition creates a separate hurdle that legacy students cannot clear.
A legacy applicant to Stanford’s general humanities programs faces different odds than a legacy applicant to Stanford’s engineering school. Families must realistically assess both institutional selectivity and major-specific competitiveness when building expectations.
What Should Legacy Families Focus On Instead of Relying Solely on Legacy Status?
The most successful legacy applicants treat their status as one small factor rather than a golden ticket. They focus on the same fundamentals that drive all successful applications: authentic fit, compelling storytelling, and strategic school selection.
This means spending months developing essays that reveal genuine personality and reflection. Great College Advice uses a comprehensive criteria-matching process with “100 categories, pull-down menus of must-haves to not interested in at all, everything from majors to big sports to urban to suburban to internships.”
Perhaps most importantly, Berger challenges the premise of the original question: “There is no such thing as a top 20 school. Fit is what we focus on. The kid who likes Ithaca, New York [Cornell], won’t like Morningside Heights in Manhattan [Columbia].”
Legacy families who embrace this fit-first philosophy (building authentic applications for genuinely well-matched schools) will consistently outperform those who lean on legacy status alone.
Need Expert Help for College Admissions?
Legacy status remains a factor at many selective institutions, but its influence is neither universal nor decisive. The most successful approach combines realistic assessment of each school’s legacy policies, strategic application timing when appropriate, and relentless focus on application quality and authentic fit.
As Jamie observes about even the most connected families: “I have heard in recent years of kids with family names on buildings who have not been getting in. So even that legacy doesn’t have the power it once did at some schools.”
The takeaway for ambitious families: legacy may open a door slightly wider, but your student still needs to walk through it on their own merits. For professional help on building a compelling application, book a free consultation with us.
