<p>Nobody is entitled to admissions to top universities and I think that universities should be able to decide how they want to admit students, as long as they aren’t breaking any laws and discriminating against federally protected groups. Are legacy admissions fair? No. But life isn’t fair. People get jobs based on who they know all the time.</p>
<p>Also, we’re conflating legacy admissions with unworthy admissions. I highly doubt that a legacy applicant who is far below the school’s averages is going to get admitted unless their parents are truly loaded and build the school a new library or something (and then it’s just quid pro quo). Most legacy admits, I’d wager, are students who could’ve gotten in on their own merit anyway but just got a small boost from being legacies.</p>
<p>The various civil rights acts and litigation were not meant for legacy preference admissions. Also, I noticed that this author didn’t mention how much legacy admission rates exceed the regular ones or whether or not legacies are disproportionately represented in the student body as opposed to the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Children of faculty and staff are not legacies unless their parents went to the school.
And I don’t say this because I’ll benefit from legacy admissions. I’m only 24, I have no children, and my undergraduate college was great but it was a second-tier liberal arts college.</p>