Yale President On Legacies

mini
Sun, 31 Oct 2004 10:53:43 +0000

"“The pool of legacy applicants is substantially stronger than the average of the rest of the pool. The grades and test scores of the legacies we admit are higher than the average of the rest of the admitted class, and the legacies that matriculate achieve higher grades at Yale than non-legacy students with the same high school grades and test scores.”

It’s either just a smokescreen or plain ignorance on his part. The applicants are stronger BECAUSE of their higher income and the opportunities afforded by it (which he very well knows.) Notice he said those legacies admitted had higher scores etc, which means they TURNED DOWN applicants with higher scores than the legacies. One could call that a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yale’s “diversity” numbers have NOT been increasing in recent years. Their percentage of Pell Grant recipients (lower income students) has actually declined over the past decade. The percentage of students not receiving any financial aid is (along with Brown) the highest of any Ivy League school; their percentage of students from private schools is the highest of any Ivy League school.

I suspect he knows all this - he is, after all, the President, but a little well-placed lie can go a long way. Frankly, I think it is fine for a private college to admit legacies at a higher rate - I just think they should raise the tuition for the privilege.