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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I donate $100-$250/year -- peanuts. My legacy kid with high enough (>75% for this school) stats/test scores/ECs to "buy a lottery ticket" just got into my alma mater (ED) and will attend. I believe legacy kids bring something special to the table: they grew up knowing the institution, take pride in the school, have an awareness of and appreciation for the school's traditions, and may want to continue where their parent left off. I think admitting qualified legacy kids adds something which isn't recognized in previous posts.[/quote]

Even if that were true, and in many cases it's not, and the kid doesn't care much about the institution their parent attended - I know of several! -  it still cannot weigh against these reasons cited in an earlier post, repeated below. The institutional knowledge you offer is entirely negligible, or should be, compared to the far more important reasons to select students for admission:

"Three reasons why you're wrong:

1. Universities are MUCH MORE SELECTIVE THAN BEFORE. A generation ago, entry into the Ivy League was much easier than today. Most middle-aged people who went to Ivies would not get in today. So there is no reason for their children to have preference.

2. Nature and nurture do not work how you think: even if their parents were supremely able in every way, why do you think their children would automatically be the same way? Why would you not rather judge each student on their own merits instead of making general assumptions that kids of Ivy graduates must naturally be more worthy than others?

3. Racism. Previous generations of students were chosen among a much smaller population, nearly all of them white, and if you go back farther in time, nearly all of them male and Christian. So granting privileges to their descendants perpetuates an unfair ratio of admittance that disadvantages all the excellent candidates from other groups that did not have a change before due to ethnic, religious and gender pressures."[/quote]

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