Why are Legacies Legal in the College Admissions Process?

An analysis commissioned by Students for Fair Admissions found that legacy applicants (children of alumni) were accepted at a rate of almost 35% from 2009-2015. Wow – 35%! While this is legal, is it ethical?

On college application forms, just about every college asks applicants if their parents or grandparents are alumni. While admissions decisions are determined by a wide variety of rubrics, Brown University offers their alumni special counseling to help their children prepare to apply to Brown. They call it the Alumni College Advising Program and it is free for these lucky students. Each of these students gets 3 hours of advising. They’re also offered one-on-one meetings with Brown faculty, who then write letters of recommendation to the admissions office.  The admissions committees favor applicants who “demonstrate interest” and these special meetings and letters satisfy that interest. Really?

If colleges are accepting students because their parents are alumni and they’ve donated huge sums of money, I wonder how that’s different from parents who bribe admissions officers to get their kids in. When they bribe admissions committees with new buildings or sports arenas, their less-qualified students get in while better-qualified students are denied admission.  The median family income of students at Brown is $204,000, and 70% of the student body comes from the top 20% of family income in the United States. Hmm. While the rich negotiate deals behind closed doors, and the honest, hard-working families don’t get in because Brown seems to value legacies more than merit.

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