MWolf- I was unaware of the legacy benefit being an attempt to limit admissions of Jewish people. I had however often heard that the move away from quantitative admissions towards the holistic approach was driven for just such a reason. I hope you are not suggesting the Ivies continued use of legacy preference is based on antisemitism?
In terms of legacy Ivies may be the worst offender as you suggest but LACs with smaller classes certainly don’t leave many spots between athletes and legacies.
From Middlebury’s website;
"Does it make a difference if I am the child of an alumna or alumnus of Middlebury?
We value greatly the connection between Middlebury and its alumni; however, a student who does not present a competitive academic profile would not be admitted simply because his or her parents attended Middlebury. About 6–9% of an incoming class represents children of alumni."
and
“Middlebury College competes in 29 sports and has a total of 885 student athletes: 481 men and 404 women.” While the college has a total enrollment of approximately 2,500. That implies 35+% of students are athletes.
Not sure of the Ivy %s but taken together and assuming Middlebury as a proxy for LACs more than 2 of every 5 spots are locked up for athletes and legacies.