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MIT doesn't do legacy admissions: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/just-to-be-clear-we-dont-do-legacy http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/just-to-be-clear-

• alexeisadeski3 13y ago
  I wouldn't expect "tech" oriented universities to grant legacy admissions.
• evoloution 13y ago
  Nice to clarify that, is there a list that seperates higher education institutions based on the preference of legacy admissions? Maybe someone at wikipedia could add legacy admissions yes or no in the right side panel of each university there is data. Ofcourse then universities will just say they don't consider legacy but they will do this anyway under the table... Transparency on the alumni relations of each student is the only way to go I guess...
  • danielweber 13y ago
    The most brutal school for admissions, where they look only at the students' performance and not at creating any kind of "well-rounded student body," is Cal Tech. I don't know how the others fall under them, but Cal Tech is on top of that particular list.
    • tzs 13y ago
      It should be noted, though, that this does not mean Caltech is unconcerned with a "well-rounded student body". They just do not use that as a factor when they are actually processing applications. If they want to change the demographics of the student body, they do so by trying to change the demographics of the applicant pool. For instance, when I was a student there (class of '82), the biggest demographic problem within the student body was the severe imbalance between men and women. The undergraduates were only around 15% women. That's frustrating for pretty much everyone. Caltech addressed this by trying hard to (1) get more qualified women to apply, and (2) convincing more of those who were accepted to choose Caltech over the other schools that accepted them. Essentially, they would treat a bright high school girl with a talent for math, science, or engineering the way schools with effective sports programs treated outstanding high school athletes. Nowadays, around 40% of undergraduates there are women.
    • hga 13y ago
      Indeed it is, and their requirements for all students go a fair amount beyond MIT's, including rigor. E.g. the last time I checked a few years ago you must show up on campus knowing single variable calculus and they start you on Apostol, although there's a later more practical track.
  • alexeisadeski3 13y ago
    I'd be more interested in which schools don't discriminate on race in admissions.
• phaus 13y ago
  So either my high-school classmate was extraordinarily lucky to get admitted in spite of the fact that there was nothing spectacular about his academics/extra-curricular activities, or he was admitted because his father was alumni. Call me a cynic, but I'm still leaning towards the latter.
  • hga 13y ago
    In reply to you and yajoe, obviously it doesn't hurt to be the child of an alum. But first MIT has to decide if you can do the work, e.g. the calculus and calculus based physics all students must take. That sets a pretty high bar. The last time I checked, which was before the Great Recession changed the game and increased applicants, MIT was getting 13,000 applications a year despite the extreme amount of self-selection, of which they judged 3,000 could do the work. From that they construct a class of around 1,100 students.
• yajoe 13y ago
  Similar to another poster, the only person admitted to MIT from my high school 10 years ago out of a class of 1200 from a wealthy suburb was the daughter of an alumnus who ran the interviews for the region. I just find it hard to believe Legacy doesn't play a factor even if there is no checkbox on the admission forms. The father stopped running interviews the year she got in. Even Harvard, Stanford, and Yale each admitted 3 people that year (which, interestingly were different people -- it's as if they colluded to induce enrollment).