What family connections to the Farm mean, for better or for worse

For lawyers, “legacy” is a gift of personal property by will. Music aficionados might recognize it as an album by The Temptations or Motown. But at Stanford, being a “legacy” means you have family history here–in addition to some pressures other students are less familiar with.

Some students had alumni parents who encouraged them to attend Stanford. Forest Nelson ’12 felt that pressure from his mother. From a young age, he was encouraged to study and pursue academics so that he could attend the school that his parents and three aunts did.

Patrick Kelly ’12 experienced a similar influence from his family. When he was only two days old, his grandfather placed a Stanford visor on his head. Even with the strong bond between his family and the Cardinal, Kelly said going to Stanford “was still my decision.”

“I feel like I have to prove myself once people hear I’m a legacy,” Kelly said. “But I’m here for other reasons.”

In contrast to Nelson and Kelly’s family members, Megan O’Neil’s mom made a conscious effort not to influence her daughter’s college decision. In fact, O’Neil ’13 had planned not to visit anywhere except Stanford, but her mother encouraged her to consider other schools as well.

Many students whose parents attended Stanford feel strong ties to the school. O’Neil said that since her sisters attended Stanford, she feels an “automatic connection” to the Farm. Following in the footsteps of her alumni parents, two sisters, aunt, uncle and grandfather, O’Neil feels like she’s adding to a family tradition.

“It’s cool to be a third-generation student, but it’s also cool that first-generation students are paving the way for legacies to come,” O’Neil said.

Family lore exposed O’Neil to a number of Stanford traditions before arriving on campus. Instead of just remembering last year’s Full Moon on Quad, O’Neil can remember her sisters’ stories as well. Similarly, when she bikes through the Quad, she remembers one of her father’s old tales.

“One time, my dad drove his red Fiat into the Quad, where he had a date,” O’Neil said.

For some, family influence just meant staying away from a rival school. The only pressure Ginny Scholtes ’13 felt was to avoid USC, she said.

Scholtes forged a strong bond with Stanford during her yearly visits to northern California. Since she was a year old, she has spent time with the Stanford Sierra Club, a program for alumni and their families on the shores of Fallen Leaf Lake, just south of Lake Tahoe. Each family is assigned a cabin, and during the stay, members sail, row, hike and play sports.

“I want to graduate so that I can get a cabin,” Scholtes said. “My sisters have kids, and I would like to bring them up to the lake.”

Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid Richard Shaw said legacy status has always been just one factor of many under consideration in the admission process. He said it’s a “myth” that because one is accepted as a legacy student, he or she is less qualified for Stanford. He called legacy students “exceedingly competitive.”

And the Faculty Senate this month affirmed the charge of the University Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid, which says Stanford may give special consideration to “those applicants whose parents graduated from Stanford,” who are the children of faculty or staff, who are exceptionally talented, who belong to an ethnic minority or who lend “desirable diversity” to the class.

Admission decisions “are reflective of the kind of classes we want here,” Shaw said. “We’re not out of bounds.”