Perspective: Better fundraising through family freshmen? Legacy admits repay loyalties

Penn has a lot going for it.

It boasts an all-star faculty, majestic buildings with the requisite ivy and its famous founder.

But for many of its students, Penn also means family.

College freshman Joseph Dubroff's first memory of Penn is of playing on the button as a three year old while visiting his oldest brother.

With both parents being Penn grads - along with two brothers and a sister - Dubroff says he always wanted to continue the family tradition.

"It was always my first choice - I never could see myself anywhere else," Dubroff said.

Family legacies such as these are important to Penn, helping give the University the rich sense of community that it prides itself on. And, with a sizeable portion of the student population having alumni connections, this tradition shows no sign of slowing down.

BENEFITS FOR BOTH

Legacy students are a significant aspect of each year's admissions cycle, with officials looking to continue solid alumni relations. "It fosters more loyalty to Penn, keeps an ongoing interest in Penn among family members, helps us in our efforts to raise money and continues to create a wonderful family atmosphere," Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said about attracting legacy applicants.

But Penn isn't the only beneficiary of these family ties; legacy applicants face a greater chance of admittance than their non-legacy counterparts.

Statistics released by the admissions office for the Class of 2010 cite the acceptance rate for students with alumni connections at 31 percent, with the overall rate of acceptance at 17.7 percent.

Though Stetson said there is no quota for legacy students, a "measure of preference" is given to legacy applicants - those whose parents or grandparents attended any of Penn's undergraduate or graduate schools.

This preference shows up particularly during the Early Decision cycle; for the Class of 2011, 23 percent of acceptances were granted to legacy students.

Stetson said that, generally, legacy students comprise between 12 and 13 percent of overall undergraduate classes.

These applicants are also given the opportunity to have an on-campus interview - in lieu of traditional application interviews - at the Alumni Council on Admissions, which operates separately from the undergraduate admissions office.

But getting alumni kids interested and in isn't their main objective.

"We serve as a resource," Steve Hamilton, the ACA's senior associate director, said. "We're not here to recruit; we're here to answer questions about the admissions process."

Hamilton stressed that advocacy is not part of the ACA's job - assisting alumni, and their children or grandchildren, during the application process remains central, as does acquainting potential legacy applicants with Penn.

JUMPING THE QUEUE?

Though there is no exact formula for how strongly legacy status is weighed along with other factors, admissions experts say that it cannot hold up an application on its own.

"Think of legacy status as being like a little star next to an applicant's name," Sally Rubenstone , a senior counselor at College Confidential, said. "Except in atypical cases, a candidate will need more than just a little star to march through the Ivy gates, but getting even one star is a jump-start in the selection process."

Stetson agreed, saying that, with "all things being equal," the admissions committee would give an applicant with alumni connections a chance of admission over a non-legacy.

Even with this advantage, legacy applicants still are turned away, causing complaints from alumni who feel that they have been overlooked.

"The only real concerns we've heard are from alumni where the expectations don't meet the reality," Stetson said.

And particularly with the increasing competitiveness of college admissions - especially at elite institutions - legacy status is only part of the many factors that warrant a fat envelope.

Nadine Warner , an admissions counselor at Admissions Consultants, said no school will give an applicant a free pass if they don't meet the requirements and standards of the university.

"It's not in the school's best interest to admit someone that won't do well," Warner said.

And at universities like Penn, applicants face very high standards, regardless of whether mom, dad, grandma or grandpa has a Penn diploma.

"The perception that slacker kids with family ties will jump the queue ahead of their smart and industrious counterparts

is largely - albeit not entirely - a myth," Rubenstone said.

LOYALTY IN RETURN

But the acceptance rate for legacy applicants is still almost twice that of the regular pool - and there may be good reasons for alumni loyalty to be rewarded.

Alumni donations, for example, are a substantial source of income for the University - equaling $21.1 million in 2006 alone to The Penn Fund.

"Allotting preference to legacy students is a college's way of saying, 'Thank you for the money you've given us' or 'Thank you for the money we expect you will give us' or simply 'Thank you for the time and effort you've put in for your alma mater,'" Rubenstone said.

"It's okay in my book for private colleges to give some extra credit for loyalty."

Penn President Amy Gutmann echoed these sentiments and added that having legacy students on campus helps to maintain a sense of community and continuity.

"We're proactive about it because the alumni are an important part of the mix that sustains us over time," Gutmann said.

"Our alumni are loyal to us, and we are loyal in return."

Still, Gutmann insisted that this loyalty does not extend to lowering Penn's academic standards.

"No one gets a free pass," she said.

GRANDPA'S NOT ENOUGH

Though Penn awards legacy status to children or grandchildren of graduates in any of Penn's undergraduate or graduate schools, some of its fellow Ivies aren't as generous.

Harvard University only gives preference to sons or daughters of Harvard College alumni and does not count any of its graduate schools, though their student population has the same percentage of legacy students as Penn.

Harvard Director of Admissions Marilyn McGrath Lewis said that, similar to Penn, Harvard has an "if all else is equal policy," which favors legacy applicants over nonlegacies if the two candidates are equally strong.

Like Penn, Harvard's admittance rate for legacy students is higher than for nonlegacies, but Lewis says that the legacy applicants tend to self-select more since they know what to expect from Harvard.

"People know how hard it is to get in here and they don't apply unless they have a pretty good shot," she said.

Stetson also cited Penn's competitive admissions process and noted that, with the applicant pool getting stronger every year, both legacy and non-legacy applicants must continue to perform at increasingly high academic standards.

He also added that legacy students have always performed very highly, calling them "a wonderful addition to the campus."

A NEW GENERATION AWAITS

It remains to be seen whether or not Penn's current legacy students will continue family tradition and send their children to Penn, though they seem open to the idea if that's what the future holds.

"I don't know if I'm going to marry someone from Penn and have little Penn children," Dubroff said. "But I would like to continue my relationship with Penn as long as possible."

And with more and more people sending their children to college every year, that relationship may go a long way.

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