This June the United States Supreme Court could end affirmative action in college admissions. Regardless of the outcome, this writer feels we should end legacy admissions.
In February 2023, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 62% of Americans are against affirmative action in college admissions. In this same poll, a larger percentage of whites (67%) were more opposed to affirmative action than minorities (52%).
The country is already so divided. We need political leaders who are willing to find ways to heal our divisions wherever possible.
This writer thinks reasonable people can disagree on the extent of race-conscious admissions; however, I do not think any serious person can simultaneously support legacy admissions and oppose affirmative action.
It is not fair. At the 2000 Republican Convention, Colin Powell gave a remarkable speech where he called out Republicans on this hypocrisy. Powell said:
"We must understand the cynicism that exists in the black community. The kind of cynicism that is created when, for example, some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand Black kids get an education, but hardly a whimper is heard from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interests."
At the time, it would have been hypocritical of Republicans to boo Colin Powell when they were in the process of nominating George W. Bush. Although President Bush said he was opposed to legacy admissions in 2004, Bush benefited from legacy admissions because his father and grandfather both went to Yale University.
To be fair, Bush’s grades in college were similar to his 2000 opponent Al Gore. Bush actually did better at Yale than his 2004 opponent John Kerry.
When John Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966, his grade point average was 76. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968 with a grade point average of 77 for his first three years.
Yale University had a non-numerical rating system during Bush’s senior year where his academic performance was consistent with his first three years.
According to the Yale Daily News, Bush and Kerry both graduated in the “bottom third of their respective classes.”
While legacy applicants peaked at 27.4% of the students at Yale in the early sixties, only 14 percent of students benefited from legacy admissions for Yale’s class of 2025.
Journalist Rebecca Ostriker of the Boston Globe wrote an article citing a remarkable paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research on the advantages of legacy admissions at Harvard in recent years:
"But at Harvard, the children of alumni are nearly six times more likely to be admitted than non-legacies, according to Harvard data released during a recent admissions lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions, as analyzed for SFFA by Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono.
"In the classes of 2014-2019, Harvard alumni children were accepted at a rate of 33.6 percent, compared with 5.9 percent for non-legacies."
At Harvard, there are four categories among ALDC applicants.
The four categories are athletes (A), legacy applicants (L), dean’s interest (D), and children of faculty and staff (C).
From 2014 to 2019, athletes were 10% of Harvard students. Athletes had an admission rate of 86 percent.
Legacy applicants were only 14 percent of students with an admission rate of 33.6% in this same period. From 2014 to 2019, 46.7% of the applicants, who were the children of Harvard’s faculty and staff, were accepted to the university.
They were 1.3%of Harvard students in this period.
Finally, 9.5% of Harvard’s students were on the dean’s interest list, which included the children of donors. These applicants had a 42.7% acceptance rate.
Some of the applicants were in more than one category.
Athletes admitted to Harvard were 69.3% white. Legacy students admitted were 68.7% white.
Students accepted through the dean’s interest list were 68.3% white. The children of faculty and staff admitted were 53.2% white.
Without ALDC applicants, Harvard would look more like MIT, which does not have legacy admissions.
In the class of 2026, 43% of Harvard students were white compared to only 38% of students at MIT. In the class of 2026, 28% of Harvard students were Asian compared to 40% of MIT’s students.
In one of my favorite Tucker Carlson monologues, I learned that all four of Vice President Al Gore’s children went to Harvard University. Tucker listed the children of several politicians who got into prestigious universities.
We do not know what percentage of these privileged children earned their spots.
I doubt there will ever be a comprehensive investigation into the history of this corruption.
Even if we cannot adequately investigate the past, we can certainly end legacy admissions and every other ALDC category from college admissions.
Robert Zapesochny is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on foreign affairs, national security and presidential history. He has been published in numerous outlets, including The American Spectator, the Washington Times, and The American Conservative. When he's not writing, Robert works for a medical research company in New York. Read Robert Zapesochny's Reports — More Here.
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