Legacy preferences

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Legacy preferences or legacy admission is a type of preference given by educational institutions to certain applicants on the basis of their familial relationship to alumni of that institution. (Students so admitted are referred to as legacies or legacy students.) There is a long history of this practice at American universities and colleges. The Ivy League institutions are estimated to admit 10% to 15% of each entering class based upon this factor.

Former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers has stated, "Legacy admissions are integral to the kind of community that any private educational institution is." In the 1998 book The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, authors William Bowen, former Princeton University president, and Derek Bok, former Harvard University president, found "the overall admission rate for legacies was almost twice that for all other candidates."

Legacy preferences in comparison to other programmes

Although university officials state that legacy preferences are used only as a tipping factor in admissions, the strength of the programme is actually quite strong. According to a study by two Princeton academics, Espanshade and Chung, legacy preference admits are given an equivalent of 160 point boost in their SAT scores (out of 1600) and can account for as much as a 300 point boost. However, this is actually a smaller advantage than for recruited athletes or affirmative action, which give equivalent boosts of between 185 and 230 points, respectively.

Criticism

Opponents accuse these programmes of perpetuating an oligarchy and plutocracy as they lower the weight of academic merit in admissions process. Another criticism is that the wealthy are given an insurmountable advantage which hinders economic mobility within the society.

However, some couple their stance on the two policies, either supporting or opposing both affirmative action and legacy preferences simultaneously. For example, the conservative former Regent of the University of California, Ward Connerly, opposes both affirmative action and legacy admissions. Some supporters of the elimination of all non-academic preferences also point out that many European universities, including highly selective institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge, do not use any racial, legacy, or athletic preferences in admissions decisions.

See also

• Nepotism
• Affirmative action
• Numerus clausus
• Mismatching

Outside resources

• "Meritocracy in America", The Economist, December 29, 2004.
• "For Groton grads, Academics aren't the Only Keys to Ivy Schools", Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2003, by Daniel Golden.
• "Candidate opposes legacy places", The Daily Princetonian, February, 2003
• "Will Bush Truly Renounce Privilege in Admissions?", The Boston Globe
• "The Curse of Nepotism", The Economist, January 8th, 2004.

References

"Study: Ending affirmative action would devastate most minority college enrollment"

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Last updated on Wednesday February 06, 2008 at 01:36:53 PST (GMT -0800)
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