Yale University described the upcoming classes in 2025 and boasted that it welcomed students from 1,221 high schools in 48 states and 68 countries. In addition, the university announced last year that it identified 51% of its classes as colored students.
Despite Yale’s promotion of first grade diversity, the university adheres to the admission tradition, the legacy preference, and benefits primarily white, wealthy and connected students. .. Of the new students, 14% are descendants of Yale University graduates and are encouraged to enroll as used by other elite institutions.
Despite efforts to end the preferences made by progressive students, parliamentarians and educational reformers, the tradition of 100 years ago has not been hit hard. Many universities say that legacy students build family ties and multi-generational loyalty. And only a few elite universities have abolished their preferences.
However, the practice of legacy admissions can soon face the greatest challenges. With a twist, that future can lead to the future of affirmative action.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear discussions this fall on racially-aware admission policies at Harvard University and North Carolina University. As many experts expect, the judgment may prompt a review of legacy applicants if the court terminates or rolls back the widely used practice of considering race when selecting students. there is. Explicit support for alumni children will be a competitive applicant for socio-economic benefits if racial preferences are no longer allowed, but will be difficult to defend. Let’s go.
“If the Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action, the legacy preference won’t last long for the world,” said Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School. The Supreme Court and education expert, Driver, supported race-aware admission and called Legacy’s taste “like Elon Musk cheering for the winning lottery.”
According to a Century Foundation analysis, the University of California system, the University of Georgia, and Texas A & M all ended their legacy preferences when pressured by litigation and ballot initiatives to stop using affirmative action.
Fair admissions students, a conservative group that has filed Supreme Court proceedings against Harvard University and North Carolina, can eliminate legacy preferences by racial diversity without affirmative action. Claimed to be one way to help achieve. .. Judge Clarence Thomas, a member of the court, openly opposed affirmative action and expressed his belief that legacy preferences and other factors impair admission procedures.
That context clearly puts the university in a difficult position when it comes to advocating legacy admission. This topic is so delicate that selective college staff with legacy preferences rarely discuss it.
The use of legacy admission dates back to the 1920s, when elite colleges, traditionally a wealthy Protestant territory, became concerned about being spotted by Jews and Catholics.
The exact number of schools that use legacy settings is unknown, but a 2018 survey by Inside Higher Ed found that 42% of private schools (including most elite institutions in the United States) and 6% of public schools. I am using this strategy. Only a handful of elite colleges, including Johns Hopkins and Amherst, have abandoned this preference in recent years.
Many college officials argue that legacy preferences are only part of the selection process. However, at a practical level, it helps universities manage enrollment rates and predict tuition income. As alumni children are known, heritage students are more likely to attend when enrolled, increasing what is known as the “yield” in the industry.
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Donations are also a factor. “I think many elite and exclusive schools feel they have to use legacy preference works as a funding mechanism for graduates,” said Brooklyn, who sponsored a bill that would have been banned recently. State Senator Andrew Gounardes said the legacy setting in New York.
His bill was opposed by the Independent University Commission, a state private school association. This committee includes selected universities such as Colombia, Cornell and Colgate.
In Connecticut, where lawmakers held a hearing on the issue in February, Yale was one of the private schools that came up against it. In written testimony, Jeremiah Quinnlan, Dean of the Faculty of Admissions at Yale University, called the proposed ban to ban the government from invading university affairs.
“The process of selecting students to enroll defines the campus community and culture, along with the process of hiring faculty and deciding which courses to offer,” he writes.
Duke economist Peter Arcidiacono, who analyzed data from Harvard University released in a student proceeding for fair admissions, said that a typical white heritage applicant could enroll him or her. Was found to be 5 times higher.
His analysis also found that over the years, legacy applicants have received a greater advantage. While the percentage of admitted students who are legacy or athletes is stable, the number of applicants in these categories has barely increased. At the same time, applications at Harvard University and other elite universities are skyrocketing.
Even if Harvard eliminates legacy preferences, studies say that the loss of diversity cannot be offset if race-aware enrollment is also eliminated.
Harvard refused to release Legacy enrollment figures, but according to a Harvard Crimson freshman survey, Legacy accounted for about 15.5 percent of last year’s freshman class. According to several years of analysis by Dr. Arsidia Kono, the legacy hospitalization rate at Harvard University was 14 percent.
In most cases, the exact impact of legacy admission to the campus is the black box. “The university is hiding their data,” said Dr. Arsidia Kono, who was hired by students as an expert witness for fair admissions.
The New York Times attempted to interview more than 20 presidents and admissions directors of selective schools that use legacy preferences, but the majority interviewed, including President Peter Salovey of Yale University and President Lawrence S. Bakou of Harvard University. Was not available for. ..
Several other university leaders have publicly defended that the system creates a special bond with loyalty.
“We are a family-made institution — the Duke family,” said Vincent Price, Duke’s president, in a speech to teachers. “The idea of banning legacy settings or banning certain elements as a consideration is awkward,” he added. According to this year’s survey by the student newspaper The Chronicle, about 22% of first graders had parents or siblings who attended Duke.
Dr. Price was unable to respond to the interview. So was Martha Pollack, president of Cornell University.
In an interview with the Campus Newspaper in 2018, Dr. Pollack said, “We are trying to create a family at Cornell University that will last for generations.” Cornell did not release that legacy figure.
College officials who agreed to speak with the Times generally downplayed the importance of legacy preferences in admission procedures and emphasized that some black graduates upheld this practice.
Following the civil rights movement, the number of black college graduates in the United States surged, quadrupling between 1970 and 2010. Many of these black graduates are ready to go to college.
The University of Virginia is a carefully selected public flagship school that began accepting black students in the 1950s and may have special consideration for heritage, which accounted for about 14% of freshmen and transfer students last year. register.
In an interview, Farmer said the topic was taken up at this year’s Black Alumni Conference. “I was talking to people one by one, and three of the first five questions were related to legacy enrollment for color students,” Farmer said.
“I have a lot of friends with kids starting school,” said Sanford S. Williams, a lecturer at the UCLA Law School and an active black graduate of the University of Virginia. “They are wondering,’Why is the rug pulled out from under us every time we get the chance to do something?'”
Williams and his wife, a doctor, both have a Virginia degree, as do their three children. And he supports legacy preferences as long as they are only a small part of the admission process.
Future graduates may feel different.
Logan Roberts, a white student in Groton, New York, leads an organization of first-generation college students at Yale University. The road to elite universities, including Yale.
Up-and-coming senior Roberts drafted a resolution against the legacy preference adopted by the Yale University Senate in October.
“Students who have already raised their legs do not need to raise another leg,” he said.