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I'm a junior and was wondering how much legacy status matters at Yale. One of my parents went there as an undergrad. I am taking the SAT for the first time in May, but have generally been getting 750-790 on the math SAT and 670-730 on the verbal with the released practice tests from the college board, or 1420-1520 (I know the practice tests aren't necessarily reflective of how well I will actually do, but they are all what I have to go by at this point in time). Our school doesn't do exact class rank, only decile, and I believe I am in the first. There is noticible improvement in junior year compared to freshman and sophmore. ECs aren't bad, but they aren't stellar; I am a member of several clubs (assistant editor for our newspaper) and a member of our student government, have taken piano lessons for 9 years and participated in piano competitions in my freshman and sophmore year (outside of school). I also tutor students and do various forms of community service. In addition, I have a business where I set up people with networks and support computer problems (I'm not sure whether this would help at all). Do you think being a legacy would help in this situation at Yale (I know it is a big reach)?

By Girlinbraids (Girlinbraids) on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 10:24 pm: Edit

From what I've read, legacy does help. It doubles your chances of admission (or something like that). This doesn't mean that it's easy or anything to get in, but if they're comparing the applications of two very similar people, and one is a legacy, the legacy will get it.

Does anyone else have more info on this? I'm also very interested about it cuz my mom went to Yale.