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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I did not realize that legacy admissions started out as a way to exclude Jews and Catholics from elite universities, much like holistic admissions did.

At least today, holistic admissions often help URM. But, what does legacy admissions do for URM or the kid with no hooks from a middle class family?

I'm disgusted with how so-called elite universities espouse "diversity" and holistic approach to have diverse/broad spectrum of views in the student body, but a very large % of admits are from legacy, who are typically wealthy and white.  This approach is basically "keeping the status quo".. "good ol' boys network".. "keeping it in the family".

It's disturbing that these elite institutions have retained a policy that was steeped in bigotry.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/12/15/groups-urge-colleges-abandon-legacy-admissions

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/17/harvard-university-students-smart-iq

IMO, the only reason why[b] groups like the NAACP aren't fighting it[/b] is because URM do get a leg up.  But imagine if those univ didn't give preference for URM.

If you look at the stats, it's not the URM kids who's taking spots from the MC/UMC white kid.  It's the legacy admit kids who wouldn't have gotten in with the scores they have without that legacy hook.

None of this was on my radar before, but as my oldest is hitting senior year, we are looking at colleges and the whole admissions process a lot more, and what I'm finding is that the system built for and by rich white people still persists in institutions that claim they want diversity.  It's just all smoke and mirrors.

Very disturbing.[/quote]

I don't understand this nonsense post.  Everyone's a legacy somewhere - even at schools like Howard.  Nobody cares about legacy simply because everyone is a beneficiary of this baked-in practice.  [/quote]
Are you a legacy admit?

Do you not understand that there are many universities that don't look at legacy admits?  The majority that do are these elite institutions that espouse "diversity" and holistic admissions.

Here's the problem with legacy:

Mitch McConnell has never owned a slave. BUT, his ancestors did.  He is indirectly a beneficiary of said slave owning family.  These families sent their kids to elite universities. Bam.. legacy is born. This has played out time and again with families like the Bushes, Kushners, Trumps.

Family wealth begets family wealth.  This is partly why black families have had a more difficult time getting out of poverty.  99% of them don't have legacies.  The practice of legacy admit is a legacy of bigotry.  Holistic admissions for URM is a more recent practice.

Most liberals know that "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is much harder for a black family than a white family.  Yet, elite liberals (perhaps like you) see nothing wrong with keeping it in the family, so to speak.  In this regard, you are no better than rich conservatives.

This cycle basically "keeps it in the family" and makes it increasingly difficult for the middle class to become upwardly mobile.  Unhooked families (which are the vast majority in the US) are competing for a tiny slice of the pie, while these rich, well connected families (which are a tiny % of the US population) have a bigger slice of the pie.  You can say, "that's the way it's always been", but the problem is, liberal elites talk a good game about diversity and equity, but in practice, when it comes to legacy admissions, they don't want to practice what they preach. That's the problem I have with it.

MIT, CalTech, Cambridge, Oxford -- they don't take legacy into account.  Are these vaunted institutions suffering for it?

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/16/top-universities-that-do-not-consider-legacy-when-admitting-students.html#:~:text=The%20six%20schools%20in%20the,the%20practice%20of%20legacy%20admissions.&text=MIT%20and%20CalTech%20do%20not%20consider%20legacy%20status.

Isn't it crazy that a country that has a monarchy, the House of Lords (assuming you know what and how members of the House of Lords get in) doesn't believe in legacy admissions, while a country that espouses individualism and meritocracy has legacy admissions in their elite universities?[/quote]

You are mixing up some much stuff.  Legacy is not as product of slavery or jim crow.  It is a 20th century that started in the northeast and was directed at Jews and Catholics.

On another related topic -- where is the line drawn?  If the government (and it will have to be the government at most schools) says no legacy, why not the government saying all women's only colleges need to admit men.  Howard?  What is to stop the government to say their class admission need to reflect society?  Notre Dame and Boston College -- you have too many Catholics.  Hey Princeton -- you have too many history majors.

Colleges should get to build their class as they see fit.  Some choose no legacy and that becomes a selling point.  Others stress it -- see Princeton and Notre Dame.  The government has no place in this.  You can complaint to the cows come home but most places will keep legacy because it is part of their identity.  The schools that have dropped it don't really have a soul or they have an identity that is something else.  [/quote]

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