"Well, I went to Princeton, so of course…" This is a sentence we hate to hear from parents because it usually ends with something to the effect of "my child will get in." We work with a lot of legacies. And many legacy parents believe that their kid getting into a top school like Princeton is a shoo-in. But that simply isn't the case. Legacy admissions are a lot more complicated and a lot more competitive. So let's break it down.
Do all legacies get in?
No.
We have heard through the unverified grapevine that for the Class of 2025, around 30% of legacies were offered a spot. Take this with a huge grain of salt, since Princeton did not confirm nor publicly publish these numbers. However, for the Class of 2020, they did release numbers and at the time and for that class they admitted 31.7% of legacies.
But let's use this 30ish% number. That still means 70% of legacies don't get in—the vast majority. We are going to repeat this for emphasis: the majority of legacies don't get in. If your legacy is serious about Princeton, you need to make sure they are better than the average legacy.
Who is the average legacy?
There is an unfair stereotype about legacies—that they are usually less bright but got in on daddy's money. Yes, legacies usually come from privileged backgrounds, but that usually means legacy students come from families that invest in their education. Legacies routinely go to top high schools and work with tutors and college counselors (yes, that's us.) Legacy students are given a lot of opportunities to push themselves academically.
The 30% of legacies that get into Princeton are those who use their privilege to be great candidates. We work with these students all the time. They are type-A kids who push themselves both in and outside of the classroom. Your legacy is competing directly with them. So how do you compete?
Get The Grades
We have to tell students this all the time: if you don't have the grades, no essay, no matter how good it is, is going to get you in. If you have a 3.5 GPA, don't plan on getting into Princeton. Legacy students often come from privileged backgrounds, meaning they have parents who can get them tutors the minute their grades start slipping. This means many legacies generally come with great, if not perfect, GPAs. Princeton also wants to see that your student is pushing themselves academically. These grades should be coming from challenging classes.
The students we see applying to Princeton usually have around a 3.9 unweighted GPA. The closer to 4.0 you can get, the better.
Score Big
Princeton doesn't publish incoming GPA data, but they do publish a breakdown of what standardized test scores incoming freshmen get. They break it up into quadrants so the middle 50% of accepted applicants get between a 760-800 on their math SAT and a 730-780 on Reading. Similarly, for those who chose the ACT, the middle 50% is 33-35 for their composites. One thing to note, for the SAT math, 800 is the highest you can get. This means over 25% of the incoming class (the top 25%+ if you will) got a perfect score. Yes, some students get into Princeton with lower scores. 25% of students get in with lower scores to be exact, but those are not usually legacies. Usually, the students with lower tests come from backgrounds where they didn't have access to top tutors and parents who will pay for them to retake the test multiple times.
Legacy parents routinely work with the best tutors and can spend thousands of dollars to make sure their students ace their ACTs. These are the applicants your applicant is in direct competition with. You want your student's test scores to shine.
Everything Else
Great grades and test scores get your student's application through the first set of doors. However, it leads them into a room full of qualified applicants. Princeton does not have room for every applicant with a 3.9 and a 35 on the ACT. Many qualified applicants don't get in and usually, it's because the rest of their application doesn't sparkle.
Your applicant should have great, interesting, passionate extracurriculars and essays. Most legacy applicants use a college consultant at some point in their application process. For many, this is in the spring of their junior year as they start solidifying capstone projects and writing essays and filling out applications, but for others, this can be a lot earlier. We often work with freshmen and sophomores to make sure they are building the right kind of resumes and extracurriculars that align with top schools.
Princeton knows that legacies are often highly connected and want to see that reflected in the opportunities they take advantage of. These students are your student's competition. We regularly help our legacy students fine-tune their extracurricular activities because they have too many.
Everything Everything Else
Princeton has over 97K living alumni… just like your kid needs to stand out, you need to stand out if you hope to use your alum status for your legacy student. But how do you stand out? The simplest way is money. Maybe former Dean of Admission Jim Wickenden said it best in a 2020 Daily Princetonian article. He said that during his time as dean in the 80s, he read every legacy application personally and had his staff tell him which alumni parents were "particularly loyal."
Money isn't the only way to be a stand-out alum. You could sit on a board or help Princeton students get internships or jobs in your field. The TL;DR: the more involved you are, the better.
So is Legacy still valuable at Princeton?
Yes! It will help your student get in. However, your student still has to be a great candidate. Dean of Admission Karen Richardson said at an Alumni Day event that legacy is used as a "tiebreaker," and that students still have to meet "all of the markers." This means your student has to have great grades, test scores, extracurriculars, and essays. There is no way around it when applying to Princeton. But their legacy status is an added plus when they already have the rest.
We know we just threw a lot of information at you. If all this seems complex (it is complex) we are always happy to help.
Want to talk it over? We are here for you! Reach out!