The Hypocrisy at the Core of America’s Elite Universities
The top schools like to talk about being inclusive, but their reputations depend on being selective.
How inclusive can it be?
Photographer: Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images
Now that congressional Democrats have relaunched an effort to ban legacy admissions at top US universities, virtually everyone can count on one thing: ideological embarrassment.
Legacy admissions are part of a broader system whereby elite US colleges and universities largely favor wealthy families in their admissions practices. It is possible to buy your way into those institutions — whether by being born into a legacy family that is considered likely to make a donation, or by being the child of someone who actually makes a large donation. Some 43% of White students admitted to Harvard are recruited athletes, legacies, from the “dean’s interest” list (which is often related to donations), or children of faculty and staff.