This is again underscoring the different forward-looking and backward-looking logic of legacy and donor admissions respectively.
If you want to get on a donor’s list, you are usually going to need to give BIG money. Most grads, even the ones doing quite well, are not doing THAT well.
But if your kid goes to your college and hits it big in life, maybe they will give BIG. And if not them, maybe one of your grandkids. And so on.
These colleges can afford to be patient, because their timescale is so long. And maybe most of the time, this won’t ever work. But if it works just a few times, then what is the cost of giving up a few slots each year to legacies with a point or two less on their ACTs compared to that BIG payoff?
Again, I don’t know if all that is actually true. I just think it is interesting that a lot of people sort of treat legacy admissions like it was backward looking, whereas as I understand it, it is more forward looking.