Here, Nadirah Farah Foley, a postdoctoral associate at New York University, answers five questions about the elitist history of legacy admissions and their uncertain future. Legacy admissions became common in the s — one of the most blatantly exclusionary and discriminatory eras in the history of United States higher education. Dartmouth College instituted a legacy policy in Yale University followed in At the time, Ivy League universities were preoccupied with preserving their status as bastions of the elite.
Princeton made its preference for legacies even more explicit — and public. Legacy admissions are frequently debated because they represent a glaring contradiction in American higher education.
Admitting an inordinately high percentage of children of privilege raises this question: Do universities really want the best and brightest? Or do they want the richest and whitest? At Harvard, as many as one-third of students offered admission have Crimson lineage. Princeton, with its minuscule 5. Even elite public universities such as the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia grant favor to legacy applicants. However, these two schools differ in how openly they advertise their legacy policies.
UVA created its own Admission Liaison Program where children of alumni can attend special events, webinars, and even schedule a one-on-one transcript consultation with the director of the organization at any point throughout high school. It is estimated that three-quarters of the top research institutions and liberal arts colleges in the United States factor legacy status into their admissions decisions. This includes all of the Ivies and many other ultra-elite private schools such as Georgetown, Duke, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Amherst, Tufts, and countless others.
A much smaller number of highly-selective schools openly oppose granting favor to legacy status. Interestingly, most elite schools also grant much heavier consideration to parent who attended their undergraduate school versus a graduate program.
Some top universities, Penn and Cornell being two examples, only consider legacy status in the early admission rounds. The plaintiffs who filed lawsuits accusing Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill of racial discrimination in their admissions policies are asking the Supreme Court to hear both cases together, potentially increasing the chances that the justices will issue a sweeping ruling that strikes down affirmative action across higher education.
A group known as Students for Fair Admissions sued both schools on the same day in Its targeting of both a private and a public univers. Over people commented on the proposed New Mexico social studies standards. Opinions are split. Erica Burden had dropped off her child at school Tuesday morning and had not been seen or heard from since, Kentucky State Police said. In 27 years of criminal law practice, I've never seen a trial judge tell a jury to applaud a defense witness right before they take the stand.
When Doug Benefield met a beautiful ballerina 30 years his junior he thought he had found his ideal match, but the whirlwind romance would end in deadly pas de deux for the pair. And he loved her until the end. Close this content. Read full article. More than half of the top U. Story continues. Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions.
In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting. Recommended Stories. The Providence Journal. KTXL - Sacramento. Las Cruces Sun-News. Countless powerful Americans have followed their relatives to elite universities. In , when John F Kennedy applied to Harvard, the first page of the application form asked where his father had graduated from college.
He was admitted, though his academic record was not especially strong. In , George W Bush followed his father and grandfather to Yale, despite lackluster grades. A recent lawsuit has unexpectedly stoked passions around the issue of legacy applicants. In October, Harvard was taken to federal district court for allegedly discriminating against Asian Americans.
According to the group that filed the lawsuit, Students for Fair Admissions, this limits the number of Asian Americans in the student body. Though the lawsuit was meant to focus on race-conscious admissions, it has also added fuel to a fiery debate about wealth and privilege at elite institutions, and has helped to energize student demands for greater transparency in the admissions process.
Students for Fair Admissions has not historically fought for the rights of Asian Americans. It is led by the conservative activist Edward Blum, who has waged a long war against laws that involve race and ethnicity. The issue of legacy admissions was brought up in court by Adam Mortara, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who argued that universities should not give preferences to any category of students, whatever their racial or economic background.
Like the website of Harvard admissions , Khurana seemed to guide the conversation away from the number of wealthy Harvard students, and toward the opportunities afforded to low-income students. Despite the best efforts of Harvard administrators, the influence of wealthy alumni was on full display in court.
According to court documents filed in support of the lawsuit, among white applicants who were accepted to Harvard, Only 6.
0コメント