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OPPORTUNITY
How Legacy Admissions Rewards White People Because of Their Race
We're dealing with a two-tiered system of opportunity
Isn’t it ironic that some of the same people claiming to care about "fair admissions" policies are not making a peep about legacy admissions programs? Legacy admissions programs extend opportunities to prospective students whose parents graduated from a college or university. This is complicated by America's history of systemic racism. For instance, all medical schools were closed to Black applicants before 1865, and these programs remained segregated until the 1960s. As a result, legacy admissions programs effectively reward White people because of their parents' race. Racism is baked in so that the historical rejection of Black applicants, which prevented them from becoming alumni, continues to impact opportunities for their descendants. Sadly, America has a two-tiered system of opportunity, where whiteness is still subtly treated as a privilege.
While the use of legacy admissions programs has decreased over time, a Wall Street Journal report suggested that 56% of America's top universities considered legacy in their admissions process. One study showed that legacy students are more than four times more likely to be admitted than applicants with the same standardized test…
