The Quiet Fight to Keep Legacy Admissions
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/us/legacy-admissions-colleges-universities.html
Most elite colleges, like Yale and Harvard, give a boost to applicants who are children of alumni. But with affirmative action under attack, that may become harder to defend.
Describing its incoming class of 2025, Yale boasted that its students hailed from 48 states, 68 countries and 1,221 high schools. What's more, the university announced last year, 51 percent of the class identified as students of color.
Yet even as Yale promotes the diversity of its first-year students, the college has clung to an admissions tradition — legacy preferences — that mostly benefits students who are white, wealthy and well-connected. Of the incoming students, 14 percent were the offspring of a Yale graduate, receiving the kind of admissions boost also used at other elite institutions.
Not much has made a dent in the century-old tradition, despite efforts to end the preference that have been waged by progressive students, lawmakers and education reformers. Many colleges say legacy students cement family ties and multigenerational loyalty. And only a few elite colleges have abolished the preference.
The practice of legacy admissions, however, may soon face its greatest test yet — and in a twist, its future could be tied to the future of affirmative action.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/us/legacy-admissions-colleges-universities.html