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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