In The Chronicle’s survey of the Class of 2022, first-years were asked if any of their parents or siblings attended Duke University. Students who answered yes were defined as legacy—there were 37 legacy and 221 non-legacy students.
The survey discovered that legacy and non-legacy students vary most in family income, interest in Greek life, the number of Duke basketball games viewed and tenting interest. But they have similar average test scores.
A larger concentration of legacy family incomes is higher than average, as more than half of legacy-students have family incomes above $250,000. Non-legacy students have family incomes that are more evenly distributed.
Of all income percentage categories, the highest concentration of legacy students have family incomes from $250,000 to $500,000. About a third of non-legacy students have family incomes from $125,000 to $250,000. No legacy student had an income at or below $40,000, but 10 percent of non-legacy students do.
In the survey, legacy students had slightly lower standardized test scores than non-legacy students. Legacy students have an average SAT score of 1520 and average ACT score of 33.5. Non-legacy students have an average SAT score of 1525 and average ACT score of 34.3.
While more legacy students expressed no interest in rushing Greek life at all, more also expressed extreme interest in rushing Greek life. A little more than 22 percent of legacy students in the survey participants indicated that they were "very" or "extremely" interested in rushing Greek life compared to only about 17 percent of non-legacy students.
Although a higher percentage of non-legacy students have not watched a single Duke basketball game, 87 percent of non-legacy students are interested in tenting in K-Ville during their first year as opposed to 78 percent of legacy students.
A greater proportion of legacy students also showed greater interest in tenting. About two-fifths of legacy students indicated that they were "probably" or "definitely" going to tent compared to about 32 percent of non-legacy students.
Interactives by Ayden Case
Editor's note: A previous version of this article used the number of students in the number of basketball games watched interactive. That interactive has since been updated to show the proportion or percentage of students.
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Stefanie Pousoulides
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Investigations Editor
Stefanie Pousoulides is The Chronicle's Investigations Editor. A senior from Akron, Ohio, Stefanie is double majoring in political science and international comparative studies and serves as a Senior Editor of The Muse Magazine, Duke's feminist magazine. She is also a former co-Editor-in-Chief of The Muse Magazine and a former reporting intern at PolitiFact in Washington, D.C.
