Harvard’s Other Controversial Admissions Policy
Long before the discrimination suit by Asian-Americans, the elite college has been challenged for its biggest preference of all: legacies.
We’ve been here before.
Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg
It’s no secret why conservatives are lending financial and political support to the Asian-Americans suing Harvard for discrimination in admissions. They want to kill affirmative action and replace it with a “race-blind” system.
Spare us. If you want to destroy discrimination in college admissions, underrepresented minorities are small fry. Instead, the biggest favors are showered on the children of alumni, who are five times more likely to gain admission than those without a Harvard bloodline. Indeed, at a trial in federal court in Boston this week, the plaintiffs who are accusing the elite college of discrimination suggested that abolishing so-called legacy preferences could be a way to widen the applicant pool and keep the student body diverse, even without affirmative action.