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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I see what seems like a lot of posts from people strongly opposed to “legacy  admissions” and I’m curious about this position.  I agree that unqualified applicants should not be admitted to any schools.  Do you assume that no legacy applicants are qualified for admission to the school their parent attended?  That seems odd to me given how important parental expectations are for success in school and life.

Do you mean that no kids should be permitted to apply to the schools their parents attended?  How would it even work, when the common app asks for parental information (and that appears to be the basis for first generation applicants)?  And how is it different from school that look at demonstrated interest?  Why should legacy kids’ interest in attending the school they are familiar with, have a personal/family connection to, and likely grew up knowing about, visiting, rooting for its sports teams, etc not be allowed to follow that interest?

Genuinely curious, I promise.  [/quote]

Not rocket science. Simply ignore legacy status, focus on merit 100%.

Candidate deserves it? Gets in.

Doesn't deserve it? Doesn't get in.

Who your parents are should be irrelevant.[/quote]

Except ... you're using terms like "deserve it." How do you determine who "deserves it?"

[b]What do you do when you have 500 spots and there are 10,000 qualified applicants?
[/b]
That's when these other criteria become valid, including legacy, affirmative action, etc. Schools build cohorts and communities. They aren't some reward for high achievement. [/quote]

How do you think any, say, sports team would do it?

From those 10,000 qualified applicants you'd find the 500 most qualified.[/quote]

What do you mean by "most qualified?"  Is the person with and 800 Math and 600 Verbal of the SAT more qualified than the person with 700 in each section?  Does the person who took AP Latin get a boost over the person who took AP Spanish?  If someone took AP Spanish but it turns out they are native speakers at home and just took it for the easy A, they are less qualified now than the kid who sat next to them in class and only got a B plus?  Is a kid who got extra credit in his science class and boosted his grade, but his who's mom is a Engineering professor at the local college and basically did his project for him more "qualified" than the kid who didn't enter the science fair because he didn't have time because he was babysitting his siblings after school because his mom was sick? What's more qualified, an A in BC calc in 12tt grade or a B+ in BC calc in 11th grade but that an A in multivariable in 12th grade?  Is a kid who plays piano but not in school more qualified than the kid who plays violin in the school orchestra?  Is the kid who started high school not speaking any English but managed to get Bs in all his English classes less qualified than the native speaker who got B pluses in the same class?  Do you say "oh this year our most qualified applicants were all female psychology majors so sorry math and lit and language professors, no students for you."  [/quote]

+1000

That's the major issue---college admissions in NOT a formula (nor should it be).  Someone with a 4.0/1600 is not smarter than someone with a 1450/3.8.  They are both smart people and bring different things to the table.  Colleges, smartly, want a diverse student body (and define diversity in many ways): they want kids from all 50 states, from many countries, in a variety of majors (cannot have all mechanical engineering majors, but no English majors), with a variety of ECs that the student body enjoys.  Whole point of college is to learn academically and to grow socially with a unique group of peers.  If everyone is cookie cutter the same, I know I and my kids would not want that.  I suspect most universities do not want that either.

Just like the people you work with are not all from the same university, most are probably not all 4.0 students in HS and/or in college.  Nobody cares what your grades were or SAT score or really even where you attended college.  I just want my colleagues/team to work together, complete their part of the projects, ask for help if they need it well before the deadline and grow/improve their skills constantly.  
[/quote]

It's not a formula but there are factors taken into consideration and there's no good reason legacy status should be one of those factors.  Legacies will still be admitted, they just won't get any special treatment (beyond the fact they probably were given much more over 18 years than some of their competitors....but no more than competitors whose parents are well educated)[/quote]

I agree---those kids already have a certain level of privilege for the first 18 years of their life.

But for a private universities, why should you (or I) get to decide that it shouldn't be a factor?  The fact is college admissions are not a concrete formula.  
[/quote]

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