Aha moment - I know 7 current Ivy League students, and all of them happen to be legacies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before this spins into the inevitable Republican bashing, allow me to point out that after G.W. Bush bravely cheered his way through Yale, subsequent Bush children went to UTexas, Tulane, UVa, & Boston College.

George W. attended Andover (legacy) and Yale (legacy), where he got terrible grades. He then somewhat famously got rejected from UTexas law school (public, not a legacy) before attending Harvard Business School.

Also, if you don’t think the Bush name helped those kids get into that list of top schools, you are incorrect.

The Bush family are poster children for legacy admissions and privilege and wealth helping less talented, intelligent, and hard working generations to fail upwards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
43% (almost half) of White students at Harvard is ALDC.

Enough Said.

Right so for the seven legacies this poster knows, at least nine white unhooked kids are at the school. That doesn’t seem like “all” of them.

Almost 1 out of 2 White students you see is ALDC.

What do you think

I think that’s less than all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
43% (almost half) of White students at Harvard is ALDC.

Enough Said.

I had to look up ALDC and for those who don't know, it's athlete, legacy, dean's list (rich/connected donors) and children of faculty.

I also googled the % of graduating HS seniors who are white, and nationally it is 51-52%. Since some people are dedicated to playing the proportional representation game in the name of justice, whites are technically under represented among the ALDCs at Harvard.....

I'm pretty sure that's not what the PP intended to say with the post, hah!

I’m pretty sure you’re dumb if you think 43% of white students are ALDC is the same as 43% of ALDC are white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - are the high school students you know mostly white? Because one way of reading this post is that it reaffirms the recent Supreme Court decision - it’s become nearly impossible for white highly qualified high school students to get into Ivy League schools unless they are legacies or athletes.

I dunno. My white totally unhooked dd is at HYP and certainly she knows plenty of legacies but she also knows like plenty like her who are not. There is no formula folks, but certainly some regular kids get a little bit of fairy dust sprinkled in their app and get in. And none of us who were not in the adcom discussions know why.

You need to realize that everyone needs someone or something to blame for their precious being denied something.

[Anonymous]

I actually know only Asian and white kids. As far as I know none of them are legacy. From MOCO magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before this spins into the inevitable Republican bashing, allow me to point out that after G.W. Bush bravely cheered his way through Yale, subsequent Bush children went to UTexas, Tulane, UVa, & Boston College.

George W. attended Andover (legacy) and Yale (legacy), where he got terrible grades. He then somewhat famously got rejected from UTexas law school (public, not a legacy) before attending Harvard Business School.

Also, if you don’t think the Bush name helped those kids get into that list of top schools, you are incorrect.

The Bush family are poster children for legacy admissions and privilege and wealth helping less talented, intelligent, and hard working generations to fail upwards.

Yup. I know a branch of the family where the kids all went to Yale, and all appear to be dingbats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - are the high school students you know mostly white? Because one way of reading this post is that it reaffirms the recent Supreme Court decision - it’s become nearly impossible for white highly qualified high school students to get into Ivy League schools unless they are legacies or athletes.

Probably. And many if not most of the legacies are going to be from connected families with parents who are prominent and accomplished. Major donors (no, your paltry $200 a year doesn't count), major cultural figures, heads of institutions, film directors, financial bigwigs. It's not your run of mill legacy applicant from a run of mill professional suburban family.

30 years ago legacy admissions wasn't so controversial because there was still plenty of room for non legacy, unhooked bright kids, who were the biggest demographics at the schools. But over the last 30 years the Ivies have hollowed out that demographic enormously in order to fit in all the quotas of other categories. Not just black or Latino, but "international" is now a significant presence the Ivies seek out. To make room for all of them while keeping the rich hooked legacies and the athletes, the unhooked suburban kids had to go bye bye. The Ivy student body is engineered to a degree today that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

Banning legacy admissions won't change anything meaningfully. These kids will just go into the special admissions pile in a different form. The Ivies aren't giving up the children of the rich and powerful and connected. But banning affirmative action will affect the schools significantly and will see the % of Asian students go up noticeably, but in my view that is perfectly fine. That's merit, more like it was 30 years ago, except that more will be Asian.

OP here. The 7 students that I know at Harvard and Princeton (and also the 2 at Cornell that I later remembered) are from UMC suburban families. All but one of them are white. Contrary to what the PP posted above, the parents (who themselves are graduates of Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell) are likely not major donors or bigwigs -- the parents are definitely successful and smart people who work hard and have good jobs, and they seem to live nice lives with some vacations. But they are not anything extreme.

[Anonymous]

I am an immigrant (white), so no legacies in my circle. However, I know 7 kids at Ivies - 3 Cornell, 3 UPenn, 1 Yale; I am sure none are legacies, URM or athletes. All graduated from public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an immigrant (white), so no legacies in my circle. However, I know 7 kids at Ivies - 3 Cornell, 3 UPenn, 1 Yale; I am sure none are legacies, URM or athletes. All graduated from public schools.

But are they first generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a recruited athlete and all the kids I know that got into Ivy schools are recruited athletes.

There is a big difference between a legacy and a recruited athlete. The former is something you are by way of birth, but the latter requires a lot of dedication and persistence.

(None of my children are recruited athletes, but in my opinion, recruited athletes should get preferential treatment, as it takes a lot of grit to be an elite athlete.)

[Anonymous]

Lol no

My kids all got in no legacy not athletic no extraordinary extra curricula

Yale Princeton Stanford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol no

My kids all got in no legacy not athletic no extraordinary extra curricula

Yale Princeton Stanford

Let's try: rural, or parent's blue collar jobs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an immigrant (white), so no legacies in my circle. However, I know 7 kids at Ivies - 3 Cornell, 3 UPenn, 1 Yale; I am sure none are legacies, URM or athletes. All graduated from public schools.

But are they first generation.

Not necessarily. Their parents could have gone to college in their home country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an immigrant (white), so no legacies in my circle. However, I know 7 kids at Ivies - 3 Cornell, 3 UPenn, 1 Yale; I am sure none are legacies, URM or athletes. All graduated from public schools.

But are they first generation.

Not necessarily. Their parents could have gone to college in their home country.

Many colleges actually count this as first generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a recruited athlete and all the kids I know that got into Ivy schools are recruited athletes.

There is a big difference between a legacy and a recruited athlete. The former is something you are by way of birth, but the latter requires a lot of dedication and persistence.

(None of my children are recruited athletes, but in my opinion, recruited athletes should get preferential treatment, as it takes a lot of grit to be an elite athlete.)

And some families are doubly blessed. Look at the Boss family at Dartmouth and the Buonanos at Princeton.