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The Pros And Cons Of Legacy Admissions

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With all the controversy surrounding the recent Supreme Court decision to end race-based affirmative action in college admissions, attention has been drawn to another form of bias rampant in admissions. Legacy admissions, also known as affirmative action for wealthy and connected students, is an unfair practice that should be banned from the college admission process. Similar to the race-based affirmative action that was recently banned, this practice gives a significant advantage in admissions to students based merely on who the applicants’ family is, which is a type of nepotism.

There are arguments on both sides of this issue. The colleges that support legacy admissions seem to do it primarily based on monetary interests. Many schools admit that legacies often end up donating the most money to the school when compared with their …show more content…

Thus it could be claimed that there is nothing unfair about legacy admissions if they meet the same general criteria as non-legacy admissions. However, if that is the case, then why consider their status as a legacy at all? If they would be accepted purely on the merit of their achievements anyways, then should not their legacy status be irrelevant? As it is, even among highly qualified applicants, legacies are preferred; those that come from rich, well-connected families, whose parents and relatives attended the school in generations past. For each legacy accepted, it means one less seat for someone equally (or perhaps more) deserving but coming from a less privileged background. It is ultimately a way to discriminate against students based not on their intelligence, achievements, or skills, but based merely on the family they were born into. This is a most unfair practice and one that should be seriously examined for its effect on higher

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