My Short Reaction to the Legacy Admission Issue

Eliminating legacy admissions at “elite” colleges sounds like a noble thing but is also short-sighted and more in the realm of virtue signaling than anything else. It assumes that all legacies are admitted automatically because they’re legacies, which is untrue. It assumes that legacy applicants are all wealthy white kids, which is problematic. It also assumes that applications can somehow be created that would eliminate any hint of legacy status, which is also problematic as long as they are read by human beings. Finally, I’d like to ask those who advocate for this policy what will happen as more and more non-wealthy, non-white students are admitted to these “elite” institutions and have their own children who might be applying in the future. Are you saying that after all the years of legacy advantage for white kids you’re going to change the system just as non-white kids apply as legacies in significant numbers? (The problem you’re trying to solve is the unearned admit; being a legacy itself shouldn’t be an issue as far as I’m concerned.) #students #collegeadmissions #collegeaccess #collegeapplications #collegeadmission