If your mom, sister, or grandmother was in a sorority, someone has told you that changes everything. Here's the current, honest state of it, because it has changed a lot recently.
What a legacy is: a PNM with an immediate family member (definitions vary, usually mother, sister, grandmother, sometimes extended) initiated into a given organization.
What it used to mean: many organizations had formal policies, guaranteed first-round invitations, required consideration, special review before a legacy could be released.
What it means now: far less, almost everywhere. In recent years most NPC organizations publicly ended formal legacy policies, meaning chapters are no longer required to give legacies special treatment in selection. Individual chapters may still note it, members may still be charmed by it in conversation, and some organizations retain softer versions, but the guaranteed-advantage era is over at most campuses.
Practically, for you: list your legacy status if registration asks, mention it naturally if it comes up ("my mom was actually a Theta at Ohio State"), it's a warm conversation moment and real shared ground. But do not build your strategy on it, do not expect the chapter to protect you in cuts because of it, and genuinely do not take it personally if the legacy chapter releases you, it happens constantly now and reflects capacity math, not disrespect to your mom.
And the reverse pressure: if you're a legacy who secretly prefers a different chapter, you're allowed. Your mom's chapter was right for her in 1998. The whole point of a week of mutual selection is finding what's right for you in 2026, and any mother worth her letters ultimately wants that instead.