Princeton is an exceptional Ivy League university located in Princeton, New Jersey. The university is especially known for economics, computer science, and psychology, and is one of the world’s leading research universities. The university has been home to dozens of Nobel laureates, over a dozen winners of the National Medal of Science, among other prestigious awards. Undergraduate students benefit from living, growing, and learning within this outstanding community. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 was .
In the Fall of 2024, it was announced that of students in the first-year Class of 2028 were children of alumni, also known as legacies. Later, in the Daily Princetonian’s fourth annual Frosh Survey, they shared that the legacy percentage was as high as when including siblings, grandparents, and other family members. Princeton has a long tradition of prioritizing legacy applicants. In this post, we’re going to dig into legacy admissions, the role that legacy admissions play at Princeton, and what potential Princeton legacy applicants absolutely must do to strengthen their application ahead of submitting.
Getting into an exceptional college requires a strong strategy — even if you are a legacy. Get yours.
What’s going on with Legacy Admissions?
Legacy has become increasingly contentious, especially for elite universities like Princeton. With the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action, many schools have disavowed legacy admissions practices, but top schools like Princeton continue to practice it. In fact, in March of 2024 the university publicly that they would continue “to consider the legacy status of applicants as a factor in its undergraduate admission decisions.” The Princeton board that legacy preference “functions as a tie-breaker between equally well-qualified applicants,” but that most legacy applicants – 70% or so — are rejected.
For Princeton, legacy plays an important role in the admissions process. In a 2023 opinion piece in the New York Times, Princeton Professor Shamus Khan wrote that, in 2018, the acceptance rate for legacies at Princeton was six times that of non-legacy applicants. Professor Khan goes on to argue that the legacy admissions system has a lot of problems, including racial and socio-economic bias. However, legacy policies at Princeton persist and we believe strongly in helping students to get every boost they have access to as they strive to get into their dream school. So, in this post we explain what legacy applicants to Princeton must do given the long-standing bias towards legacy that the Princeton admissions team continues to practice today.
What Should You Do?
When applying to college as a legacy, it’s important to remember that both the student and their family member who is an alumni have a role to play.
For the Family Member: The truth of legacy at Princeton is that it matters, and it can be the difference maker for an applicant, but most legacy applicants to Princeton are still rejected. If a family wants legacy to be a tie-breaker in a good way, though, there are a few things the alumnus can do. First, be involved. This is not just donating. You don’t need us to break down the role money plays in admissions. Here we are talking about good ole’ fashioned face time. Reach out to offer your time to speak to classes, judge student competitions, or to help organize alumni events. Give us a call if you want to chat about this!
Finally, you need to support your kid. The stats on getting into Princeton are rough even with the legacy advantage. It’s important to be there for the applicant throughout, and to make it clear to them that they are valued and loved, and will have a fabulous future, regardless of the outcome with Princeton.
For the Applicant: Most important to this whole process, though, is what the student who is applying is doing to prepare in advance of the application deadline. Below, we’ve broken it down into four key areas.
Grades
We can’t beat around the bush. To get into Princeton, your grades need to be awesome. who get into Princeton have a 4.0. Princeton doesn’t actually have a minimum GPA to be considered for acceptance, but statistics tell us that there is, functionally, a minimum. The transcript is the most important first impression. In order to get the admissions officers to really consider an applicant, the grades need to be there to make a positive impression. If not a 4.0, the GPA must be above a 3.8 to be seriously considered — even as a legacy applicant.
GPA Distribution of the Class of 2028
Scores
When you are applying to Princeton as a legacy, your standardized test scores need to be . The middle 50% — note middle — on the math section of the SAT for the Class of 2028 was 770-800. The middle 50% SAT score on the evidence-based reading and writing section was 740-780. On the ACT, the middle 50% was 34-35 for the accepted and enrolled Class of 2028.
Now, it is important to note that Princeton was also test-optional for the 2023-2024 application cycle, so the stats are likely skewed upwards. The year prior, 77% of accepted and enrolled students had sent in scores. Applicants who didn’t have high scores most likely didn’t send them, so the averages are based on the best of the best.
As of this moment, Princeton test optional through the 2024-2025 application cycle, and there is no minimum test score to be considered. We highly recommend that legacy applicants submit test scores, but we also advise students to not submit scores that are below the middle 50% of recently accepted students as long as Princeton remains test-optional. So, the best case scenario is to put in the work ahead of time to achieve high scores. Second best is to not submit scores and instead to make a huge impact with high grades, strong essays, excellent recommendations, and, of course, awesome activities.
Extracurriculars
Community service was the high school extracurricular among accepted students for the Class of 2028, with over 75% of accepted and enrolled first-years prioritizing community service. Other top activities were honors societies and varsity athletics, and academic research. One important extracurricular that often gets overlooked by legacy applicants, though, is employment. Most students who are accepted by Princeton have had a job. This surprises a lot of families, but it’s a big reason why we highly encourage our students to work even, and perhaps especially, if the job isn’t ‘impressive’.
You can work at a summer camp related to your potential major, or get a job at a local restaurant simply to make spending money. You can get a paid internship, or start a lawn service company even if you have no intention of building a lawn care empire.
What you do for a job matters, but it matters less than what you learn. Instead of worrying about sounding ‘impressive,’ focus on finding opportunities to grow, explore, and challenge yourself. Then, write about your experiences. These memories can become the bones of future Princeton essays or supplements.
Apply Early
Princeton doesn’t offer Early Decision, but they do offer a option that is non-binding while still communicating to Princeton that the university is your first choice. We highly recommend that legacy applicants take advantage of the single-choice early action option. If you don’t apply early as a legacy, you risk giving away any advantage that you may have had. That is a silly thing to risk, so don’t do it. Instead, apply early.
Legacy admissions continues to receive criticism from those both outside of and internal to Princeton, but the university has reinforced their commitment to offering legacy applicants a boost in the admissions process.
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