<p>“I’d rather even out the playing field as much as possible than give preferential treatment to some just to try to get more alumni donations (also, it’s still debated whether legacy admissions increases a school’s donations that significantly anyway).” </p>
<p>As I noted above, I think the business model around legacy admissions is less about alumni donations and more about getting tuition dollars and higher net revenue per student. My alumni contributions to UVA are peanuts compared to the OOS tuition bills. </p>
<p>Only 30% of folks currently in their 40s and 50s have a 4 year college degree, and we all know college grads on average have more money than non college grads. Only a small subset of that 30% have a degree from a highly selective college. So the legacy pool at UVA or another selective school is an upscale demographic.</p>
<p>The legacy program at UVA has an interesting financial twist to it than those at the private schools since it only targets those applicants who would be charged the higher tier of tuition.</p>
<p>From a net revenue perspective, UVA would do even better if it gave a legacy preference to in-staters. But that presumably would not be politically feasible.</p>