Ivy League legacies due for court scrutiny?

COMMENTARY. Should legacy applicants at Ivy League schools continue to enjoy an edge over everybody else?

I think most people -- except perhaps parents with an Ivy League pedigree -- would agree that giving a college admission boost to such "legacies," or family of alumni, is unfair.

The issue of alumni favoritism is bound to resurface in the coming months if the U.S. Supreme Court goes ahead, as expected, and reviews the constitutionality of affirmative action at colleges and universities. I wrote about this likelihood here: Is the End Nearing for Affirmative Action at Universities?

If it turns out to be unconstitutional for a university to give an advantage to a poor black kid who excelled academically despite an impoverished environment, why should the products of private prep schools on Manhattan's Upper East Side enjoy an advantage just because their moms or dads (or both) are Ivy League alums?

Ivy League schools insist that legacy applicants get only a slight advantage.  Studies have shown, however, that this is just not true.

Earlier this year, for instance, a Harvard researcher looked at the admission records at 30 highly selective private colleges and universities and concluded that the admission advantage was significant. Overall, legacy applicants received an average 23.3 percentage point increase in their admission odds. If a parent was the graduate, the advantage was a 45.1 percentage point bump.

I pulled a chart from The Chronicle of Higher Education that illustrates that legacy admission advantage. Parents are primary legacies. Secondary legacies include siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Here is a breakdown of the admission advantage:

According to Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the author of Affirmative Action for the Rich, legacy preferences provide the equivalent of a 160-point boost on the combined math and critical reading SAT scores.

Some attorneys have argued that legacy admission policies violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Wouldn't it be nice if a kid from Flint, Mich., or Bakersfield, Calif., challenged legacy policies in court?

Now that's a case I'd love to see the U.S. Supreme Court tackle.

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[biaknabato]

If grades and SAT scores are the sole basis of admissions at Harvard then 60% of the entering 2011 freshman class at Harvard will disappear because of the vast system of preferences that exists in the Ivy League. Harvard has admitted on record that more than half of applicants with a perfect SAT score are denied admission. What that means is very simple, it means that for every student in the entering 2011 freshman class at Harvard there was another applicant with an equal or higher SAT score who was denied admission because they were not regarded as useful to the survival of Harvard which means it has to do with money. I had seen every reason made by a legacy parent as to why their kid deserves to be admitted at Harvard or any other legacy school. They range from their kid being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, their kid had the best time of their lives, they are capable of doing the work etc. These reasons always had to do with human greed, selfishness, self-interest etc. My response to them has always been the same : There was always another applicant who had an equal or higher SAT score and with better grades who was denied admission in favor of their kids because they were not deemed useful to the survival of Harvard (money).The least that the American public should do is to demand that Obama and Congress immediately deprive the Ivies and private universities tax money be it for student loans or research. What the legacy parents are really interested in is the exchange value of the sheepskin diploma from an Ivy school for their children in the real world.

Leo Cruz aka Biaknabato
ako ay Pilipino ( I am a Pilipino)

[tenzullc]

You have to be pretty standout these days to get in to any Ivy League or Stanford. It's more competitive. Unless your dad and mom donated millions of dollars to the school, I'm not sure if it really is a palpable bump. When I went to an Ivy it was 20-24 percent admit rate, now it's a heart breaking 8 % admissions rate. I think if your parents are from an Ivy, you may get an advantage from getting guidance in what courses to take, what activities to do, etc. Your parents are more likely to push education more. What is it they always say during admit week? They deny more than half of the students who score above 90 percent on the SATs.