<p>URM and low income I understand - they want to be generous/ it adds to their reputation/diversity. But how does legacy benefit them at all? </p>
<p>Also, why is athletics considered to important for these schools? After all, they’re academic institutions. I can’t imagine sports contributes to their rankings or such.</p>
<p>Legacy=donations. Donations are much less likely to come in if the college rejects the alums’ kid.
The reason for accepting low income students is not out of generosity, but rather for statistics and because low income students often have to overcome much more adversity during their lifetime than students from the middle or upper class, and so being lower class can make them more desirable for an adcom than a student from a higher income family.
Athletics… I don’t understand at all why it helps as much as it does in an application.</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t know. . . . Maybe because the Ivy League is an athletic conference? And the goal in an athletic conference is to win games, best your traditional rivals, and win conference championships? And to win games, best your traditional rivals, and win championships, you need good athletes (as well as good coaches and a bit of luck)? And because students, and especially alums, sometimes care very deeply about besting traditional rivals and winning conference championships, and consequently (especially for alums) they feel more deeply connected to, and more warmly toward, the school when those things happen? And that tends to open up their checkbooks?</p>
<p>Being an athlete involves a lot of discipline and planning to complete academic studies while involved in a sport. Anyone can only study and get good grades, but competing in athletics is a huge time commitment and an exercise in balancing multiple activities. If you’ve managed to play a sport and excel in academics, the admissions committees recognize those efforts. Legacies bring in money from their familial alumni.</p>