Yale President On Legacies

mini
Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:28:04 +0000

Unless legacies occupied all the top academic scores of applicants (90% of all students being turned down), mathematically they had to admit legacies with lower scores than some of the applicants they turned down.

Voronwe - it is very true that it would take two or three decades for the effects of preferential legacy admissions to trickle down, but only if those attending in the first place represented a more diverse group. Now, to be fair, I bet that those 60% of students from the top 3-5% of the U.S. population economically speaking (those paying $168k over four years) are more diverse than they were in 1970 - for one thing, they include women!

The data over the term of Levin’s presidency don’t indicate that they are seeking more representation from traditionally underrepresented groups, or, perhaps, they simply aren’t very good at it. It can be done (Amherst, following on the heels of Smith and Occidental has proven it), but it takes time, lots of money, and effort. The data on Pell Grant recipients suggest that it hasn’t happened yet. But there’s always hope (especially if they can get legacies to fund it.)

(I hope I’m being clear - I’m very much in favor of legacies.)