Legacy Admissions

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ab2cmiller

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Notre Dame's going to come under a lot of pressure to reduce/end preferential admissions treatment for candidates that are a Legacy. From what I've read ND has the largest percentage of Legacy students enrolled of any national university. Obviously a good chunk of those are kids that would've gotten in regardless as the standardized test scores and GPA's of the legacy admits have gotten much closer to those of the non-legacy admits.

 
stlnd01

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NDPhilly said:
It’ll blow over
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Not so sure about that.

The funny thing is, if they outlaw preferences for legacies but not for children of big donors, the alums who can afford to will simply donate more and buy their kids' way through admissions. The rest (and believe it or not most Notre Dame alums are not really that wealthy) will I guess be on their own.
And there's no way these schools give up preferences for children of big donors. That's where the precious endowment comes from.
 
IrishLax

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The entire reason Notre Dame is Notre Dame and not some shitty Northwestern-lite Catholic school is legacy admissions. The moment they start over-emphasizing kids that aren't a cultural fit for Notre Dame instead of legacies is the moment the whole school goes to shit. Legacies get some preferential treatment in admissions but it's mainly "you already had good grades and transcripts so let's give you the green light" not "you are totally unqualified and we're giving you a spot over someone who is way more qualified."

Btw it's times like these that I'm thankful that ND is run by priests who -- as much as they make it hard to win in football sometimes -- aren't a bunch of far-left jackoffs like most "elite" universities.
 
SaltyND24

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I think the admissions departments at all schools do dizzy bat for 10 seconds and take a dart and throw it at a stack of applicants...if they hit yours, congrats, you're in...
 
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notredomer23

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Damn, now my future kids will never get into the academic bastion of Holy Cross College
 
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ab2cmiller

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NDIrish69 said:
Does anyone know if grandchildren receive the same legacy benefits as children?
Thanks
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I'm pretty sure there is only a Legacy factor if the applicant's parents went to ND. Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc are not considered.
 
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PerthDomer

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IrishLax said:
The entire reason Notre Dame is Notre Dame and not some shitty Northwestern-lite Catholic school is legacy admissions. The moment they start over-emphasizing kids that aren't a cultural fit for Notre Dame instead of legacies is the moment the whole school goes to shit. Legacies get some preferential treatment in admissions but it's mainly "you already had good grades and transcripts so let's give you the green light" not "you are totally unqualified and we're giving you a spot over someone who is way more qualified."

Btw it's times like these that I'm thankful that ND is run by priests who -- as much as they make it hard to win in football sometimes -- aren't a bunch of far-left jackoffs like most "elite" universities.
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I think ND would have a lot of legacies without the preferences. ND alums have more kids than other schools and value the school vs similar choices (Vs HPYS or other ivies where there's less setting the schools apart) so you don't need to tilt the system to get a lot of legacies.

Honestly while I was there a lot of the legacies were more down on the school than the average non legacy. I wasn't one and am more fall obsessed than the legacies I knew.
 
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ab2cmiller

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IrishLax said:
The entire reason Notre Dame is Notre Dame and not some shitty Northwestern-lite Catholic school is legacy admissions. The moment they start over-emphasizing kids that aren't a cultural fit for Notre Dame instead of legacies is the moment the whole school goes to shit. Legacies get some preferential treatment in admissions but it's mainly "you already had good grades and transcripts so let's give you the green light" not "you are totally unqualified and we're giving you a spot over someone who is way more qualified."

Btw it's times like these that I'm thankful that ND is run by priests who -- as much as they make it hard to win in football sometimes -- aren't a bunch of far-left jackoffs like most "elite" universities.
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I believe this is mostly correct. The Legacy factor has become closer and closer to a tiebreaker for well qualified applicants. Legacy is not some kind of golden ticket that allows an uncompetitive applicant to get in. Back when my kid was applying to ND and I was paying attention to the stats, the stats of the Legacy pool of admits was very very close to those that were not Legacy. Maybe averaged a point lower on the ACT and maybe a tenth of a point on the GPA scale.
 
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PerthDomer

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ab2cmiller said:
I believe this is mostly correct. The Legacy factor has become closer and closer to a tiebreaker for well qualified applicants. Legacy is not some kind of golden ticket that allows an uncompetitive applicant to get in. 5 years ago, back when my kid was applying to ND and I was paying attention to the stats, the stats of the Legacy pool of admits was very very close to those that were not Legacy. Maybe averaged a point lower on the ACT and maybe a tenth of a point on the GPA scale.
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That's a bit tricky because legacies are somewhat bimodal in their academic characteristics. Some are "overqualified" turning down ivies because they like ND. There's also a curve left shifted from applicants without a hook.

So I could see the difference being larger for the group that's a close call on admissions.
 
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ab2cmiller

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NDIrish69 said:
Thought I recently read that grandchildren get legacy benefits
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This is how ND has defined "Legacy" as it relates to admissions. I doubt it's changed since 2019 but who knows.

2019 Observer article

Don Bishop, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment, said legacy students — or students who have at least one parent who graduated from the University — tend to get accepted at a higher rate than students whose parents did not attend Notre Dame.
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RDU Irish

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When my son visited in HS and sat in the student section for a game he was kind of amazed at how few of them knew the cheers or much of anything about ND. Lax is 100% correct - they should lean heavier into legacies and protect their identity instead of diluting it with a bunch of mercenary high achievers reeled in b/c it was the best deal or the most prestigious U they got in to. My daughter doesn't even want to apply and I don't really blame her.
 
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