Amherst to stop offering legacy preference in admissions

blossom
Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:17:24 +0000

I didn’t go to Harvard, but I donate to a specific program at Brown because I participated in it as an undergrad and it meaningfully changed my life. I am not a big donor; I try to donate as much as I can to the other, more “needy” type causes that Tiger in Winter discussed; I would not continue to support Brown if it meant that I couldn’t donate to these other causes at all. But since I’m lucky enough to do it-- I do. I have friends who do not support their own alma mater (“they don’t need my money” or “I hated every minute I spent there, why would I support them?” or “It took me ten years to pay off my loans- they should be donating to ME”.) and I am grateful that I get to feel differently about my college years.

I like reading Nick Kristoff’s analysis of how to donate to do the most good in the world; I follow various other columnists and scholars on how to give and I follow some of their advice but not all. (I am reluctant to donate to some fantastic humanitarian causes overseas because the level of corruption and kleptocracy in some of these countries means that 90 cents of every dollar you give is getting siphoned off by some oligarch who lives on the Champs Elysee and hasn’t been “home” in ten years). But giving to a specific program which set me off on my life’s course “feels” like the right thing to do, whether or not it’s a logical way to look at money- which after all, is fungible.