[CTcard]

... I always thought Stanford eschewed legacy preference in the absence of seven figure donations, but I’m open to learning that I was wrong. 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story...0col1-main

When I was admitted in 1977, I knew I made it on my own since I have no relatives who ever attended Stanford.  But I did notice that Stanford claimed it gave no preference to legacies.  

As far as I know, Stanford has NEVER stated that they gave no preference to legacies. Typically, however, they have been rather obscure on the matter. 

Here is a statement from 2020 by Provost Drell on the matter, responding to a CA requirement that universities file a report on legacy admissions.
Admissions considerations for children of alumni or donors - Office of the Provost (stanford.edu) 
If you try to read that statement, you will see that it never clearly states how Stanford treats legacy applications, though the mere fact that they are filing the forms with the state implies that they do give some consideration to legacy status. 

In the academic world I inhabit, Stanford is known for giving less preference to children of alums than most private schools - though I have never seen anything approaching a reliable set of numbers on that. While completely unreliable and annecdotal, I know of several individual cases of children of alums who would seem to have been close calls who did not get admitted to Stanford. That would appear to be consistent with the common knowledge I stated above - but of course a handful of cases really proves nothing.

[CTcard]

... I always thought Stanford eschewed legacy preference in the absence of seven figure donations, but I’m open to learning that I was wrong. 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story...0col1-main

When I was admitted in 1977, I knew I made it on my own since I have no relatives who ever attended Stanford.  But I did notice that Stanford claimed it gave no preference to legacies.  

As far as I know, Stanford has NEVER stated that they gave no preference to legacies. Typically, however, they have been rather obscure on the matter. 

Here is a statement from 2020 by Provost Drell on the matter, responding to a CA requirement that universities file a report on legacy admissions.
Admissions considerations for children of alumni or donors - Office of the Provost (stanford.edu) 
If you try to read that statement, you will see that it never clearly states how Stanford treats legacy applications, though the mere fact that they are filing the forms with the state implies that they do give some consideration to legacy status. 

In the academic world I inhabit, Stanford is known for giving less preference to children of alums than most private schools - though I have never seen anything approaching a reliable set of numbers on that. While completely unreliable and annecdotal, I know of several individual cases of children of alums who would seem to have been close calls who did not get admitted to Stanford. That would appear to be consistent with the common knowledge I stated above - but of course a handful of cases really proves nothing.