The Legacy Racket: The Problem With College Admission Preferences For Children Of Alumni
Topics: Education Subtopics: Economic Diversity in Higher Education
Sep 22, 2010
Authors: admin
Publisher(s): The Century Foundation
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The use of race-based affirmative action in higher education has given rise to hundreds of books and
law review articles, numerous court decisions, and several state initiatives to ban the practice. By contrast,
surprisingly little has been said or written or done to challenge a larger, longstanding “affirmative action”
program that tends to benefit wealthy whites: legacy preferences for children of alumni.1 Like racial
preferences, preferences for legacies can be criticized for being based on ancestry rather than individual merit,
yet they offer none of the countervailing benefits of affirmative action, such as remedying past discrimination
or promoting educational diversity.
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