<p>It seems to me that Harvard isn’t taking legacy kids who would otherwise have to go to Podunk U. It might be that if Harvard gave no legacy preference, there might be a few kids who would have to go to Penn or even (shudder) Cornell instead of Harvard. Indeed, if you look at the results threads here on CC, and look at rejected legacies, they typically are accepted by other, very selective schools. So the injustice, if it is one, is really pretty minimal.</p>