Elite Colleges’ Quiet Fight to Favor Alumni Children

[Anonymous]

College admissions is rigged. Everyone knows that. Apparently legacy admits also cause trouble with grade inflation and are a problem for the professors
Prince Harry was involved in a similar scandal. At Eton he forced his art teacher to do some of his assignments

[Anonymous]

Well, the article said that if the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action this fall which they probably will, then legacy admission will be very hard to defend. I think this is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, the article said that if the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action this fall which they probably will, then legacy admission will be very hard to defend. I think this is true.

It will be pretty easy to defend for schools that rely on alumni giving to fund their endowments

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For all of you that are okay with legacy preference, are you okay with affirmative action? Same thing but in reverse.

I am ok with both.

+2. DC1 is the 3rd generation at Brown, where DH's grandmother established a scholarship. I can see why the school would want us versus someone who sent 25 copy/paste applications to whatever US News ranked at the top that year.

How special for your DC1. I guess she didn’t need to send 25 applications like the rest of the unwashed masses because she knew she had an advantage as a legacy.

The unwashed masses don't care about the school's culture or fit. All they care about is social mobility/ finally making money. It doesn't matter if they attend MIT or Dartmouth, as long as they end up in a hardie planked SFH in McLean. We've been paying tuition for URMs for years now and fulfilling the promise of a life of "usefulness and reputation". It's not an advantage, it's a commitment. What are you bringing to the table that is so incredibly valuable?

If your daughter has the intelligence level you show in the above posts, I bet the poor students you look down upon are running circles around her academically, despite all the financial resources you’ve provided. You may have taught your daughter that she hit a triple because she was born on third base but her fellow students will be smart enough to understand that Brown was fairly easy to get into at the time of her grandparent’s admission and rewarding her for her birthright seems pretty ridiculous.

I'm sorry that you are suffering and I understand that rejection is painful. My son is in med school now in a research powerhouse program and pretty much everyone in his class is coming from wealth. Meritocracy is an illusion.

What?? Those two things (wealth and merit) aren't mutually exclusive.

Merit is a whole lot easier to achieve if you are backed by wealth

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I did a degree at an Oxbridge school, and my classmates there thought my stories about my legacy undergrad roommate at my Ivy were funny. She went to an elite boarding school, and had a very rich family but had about a 2.7 GPA which is very difficult to do at an Ivy where most people get a 3.0 without trying just because of the ways grading curves are structured. My roommate was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she was a legacy and she got in. These Oxbridge students who wore gowns and coattails regularly and bowed to the Queen and were part of a 1000 year old college thought it was ridiculously backwards that an American student might get into college with a big boost because their parents had attended the same college before them.

Sure, remember last year when teachers could just assess A levels and boarding school students where all qualified to attend schools they weren't remotely qualified to attend?

sh** happened during CoViD. It wasn’t perfect but it was a once in a century pandemic. What’s America’s excuse for giving people a leg up based on where their parents went to school. My spouse and I have 4 Ivy degrees between us (although I guess the graduate ones don’t count for legacy status for our kids) so we have a lot to lose if legacy preferences go away but I can’t defend my kids having a probability of getting admitted at 5x the rate of a comparable student in the applicant pool. It’s really unmeritocratic

But why does a kid who happened to have been born with a better capacity for doing well in high school than my learning disabled kid have a much better chance of getting in? He isn't a better person. He didn't work harder. He probably won't contribute more to making this world a better place. He was just lucky enough not to be born with a learning disability. Why does he have a better shot at a top school than my kid? Why is that fair?

colleges have no way of observing how hard a kid works to get a grade-they only see the grade. I also don’t know how you think colleges can assess how applicants will or won’t contribute more to making the world a better place. Maybe your kid is great but how would you assess that in an unbiased way beyond the essays, extracurricular and teacher references which they ask for already.

You can't. Which puts him a great disadvantage. Why is that fair? Why does a kid who can easily show it have more of a chance to get into a top school? According to this site, colleges have some sort of moral obligation to build their communities according to the highest GPAs, starting from the top and going down. Fortunately, the people who run those colleges aren't as stupid and narrow minded as the people who think this. They know they need diverse communities and a a strong foundation to stay relevant and solvent. People say "it's not fair" that legacies get an advantage. I say that it's not fair that neurotypical kids get an advantage. You see, fairness doesn't come into play and the stupid people on here complaining about it will never get it. They just think their neurotypical, above average, one-dimensional GPA chases is entitled to something more than others.

The debate about legacy is about a kid getting a substantial edge on admissions to an elite college over a kid with equivalent stats and extracurriculars simply because of who where their parents went to college. I don’t know why you’re complaining that college admissions officers can’t magically see that your special needs kid is better than a neurotypical applicant. Start your own thread if you want to complain about that.

Missing the point. There are many unfair aspects of college admissions. Ones that put some kids at advantages over others. Why does legacy get everybody so stirred up and not other things? The neurotypical kid has an edge on admissions over a kid born without that particular advantage simply because of who he was born to, just like the legacy kid. Why is that any more fair? And not, I really don't feel like starting my own thread. This is actually about the whiny babies who weren't smart enough to get into good colleges and are now mad that they can't get their kids into one either.

No you’re missing the point. The legacy kid will get admitted over the equivalent applicant or in many cases the superior applicant by virtue of being born to an alum. The kid born with special needs is presumably not performing as well as the neurotypical kid in the scenario you’re describing so it isn’t a case of a higher performing student being denied admissions. You may think that’s unfair because your child is a “better person” than the neurotypical applicant but colleges don’t admit applicants because their parents say they are better people than other applicants without any evidence to back up that assertion. And that is fair.

But why? It's the same thing. Some kids are born with advantages and some with disadvantages. Kids born with certain genes that enable them to do better in high school than others get to go to better schools and set themselves up for a better life. You are an elitist clown who misses the point. Unfortunately, you're an entitled elitist clown, who didn't go to a top school and is jealous and bitter that other people's kids get to go, while your above average, normal kid can't. Too bad. It's no different. There are a lot of paths to top schools and most are because of how you were born: smarts, skin color, athleticism, parents who were educated at the same school you want to go to.

People can be against legacy admissions even if they went to elite schools. There are chapters of students on Ivy campuses who are actively working to end legacy admissions preferences and an active debate among alums about the same. people who value admissions on merit (including alums) recognize that legacy admissions can keep out other qualified students and at most elite schools they mainly exist to boost enrollment of the white and wealthy. And yes they are able to hold a viewpoint that favors meritocracy even if it means that their child won’t get an extra bonus legacy privilege come admissions time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College admissions is rigged. Everyone knows that. Apparently legacy admits also cause trouble with grade inflation and are a problem for the professors
Prince Harry was involved in a similar scandal. At Eton he forced his art teacher to do some of his assignments

No he wasn’t. Eton was Prince Harry’s high school, not university. Harry presumably didn’t didn’t participate in a rigged admissions process since he never went to college (just some military school that doesn’t equal a college degree). Yes he had a problem at his elite boarding school with allegedly not doing his work for an art class that a teacher was allegedly pressured to do for him but that’s why he didn’t go to college, but that’s presumably why he didn’t go to college unlike his brother William. Not every parent who went to an elite school (Prince Charles, Cambridge) insists on forcing their kid into an elite college where they aren’t qualified to succeed academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College admissions is rigged. Everyone knows that. Apparently legacy admits also cause trouble with grade inflation and are a problem for the professors
Prince Harry was involved in a similar scandal. At Eton he forced his art teacher to do some of his assignments

You think Prince Harry was a legacy admit? That's funny.

You have no data to support your position about legacy admits being a problem, and since Ivies have 4 year graduation rates of 84-89% the data contradicts your opinion.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For all of you that are okay with legacy preference, are you okay with affirmative action? Same thing but in reverse.

I am ok with both.

+2. DC1 is the 3rd generation at Brown, where DH's grandmother established a scholarship. I can see why the school would want us versus someone who sent 25 copy/paste applications to whatever US News ranked at the top that year.

I'm neutral on legacy admissions, but you are clueless. The whole reason why someone HAS to send 25 copy/paste applications is because they don't have your advantage.

[Anonymous]

DP. PP is clueless as well. There is nothing wrong with a school promoting multi-generational connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of you that are okay with legacy preference, are you okay with affirmative action? Same thing but in reverse.

I am ok with both.

+2. DC1 is the 3rd generation at Brown, where DH's grandmother established a scholarship. I can see why the school would want us versus someone who sent 25 copy/paste applications to whatever US News ranked at the top that year.

I'm neutral on legacy admissions, but you are clueless. The whole reason why someone HAS to send 25 copy/paste applications is because they don't have your advantage.

I know it’s such a dumb post. What do you want us to say? Congrats to your DC1 on being wealthy and privileged and buying her slot. Let me see if they make a Hallmark for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. PP is clueless as well. There is nothing wrong with a school promoting multi-generational connections.

Except that is has nothing to do with academic achievement. But ime...if these schools want to have affrmative action to ensure that disadvantaged students can get access to these institutions...then that spills over to legacy and athletics and other criteria that I may not agree with, but these institutions feel is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all of you that are okay with legacy preference, are you okay with affirmative action? Same thing but in reverse.

I am ok with both.

+2. DC1 is the 3rd generation at Brown, where DH's grandmother established a scholarship. I can see why the school would want us versus someone who sent 25 copy/paste applications to whatever US News ranked at the top that year.

I'm neutral on legacy admissions, but you are clueless. The whole reason why someone HAS to send 25 copy/paste applications is because they don't have your advantage.

At the end of the day they'll take the 'best' school they can get into. I can see why a college would want someone who wants to be there and who will likely be involved post-graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. PP is clueless as well. There is nothing wrong with a school promoting multi-generational connections.

Except that is has nothing to do with academic achievement. But ime...if these schools want to have affrmative action to ensure that disadvantaged students can get access to these institutions...then that spills over to legacy and athletics and other criteria that I may not agree with, but these institutions feel is important.

You don't know if the student mentioned was academically qualified or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. PP is clueless as well. There is nothing wrong with a school promoting multi-generational connections.

PP never said there was. In fact, PP said she was "neutral" about legacy admissions. PP's point was that, good or bad, having legacy admissions makes applying to colleges easier for legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:For all of you that are okay with legacy preference, are you okay with affirmative action? Same thing but in reverse.

I am ok with both.

+2. DC1 is the 3rd generation at Brown, where DH's grandmother established a scholarship. I can see why the school would want us versus someone who sent 25 copy/paste applications to whatever US News ranked at the top that year.

I'm neutral on legacy admissions, but you are clueless. The whole reason why someone HAS to send 25 copy/paste applications is because they don't have your advantage.

I know it’s such a dumb post. What do you want us to say? Congrats to your DC1 on being wealthy and privileged and buying her slot. Let me see if they make a Hallmark for that.