There is no need to read the rest.
(1) College admissions | Exorbitant Privilege; The argument that universities need to give preference to the children of alumni in order to pay for places for the poor doesn't wash.
https://www.economist.com/united ... should-be-abolished
Quote:
"A survey by the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, found that 29% of the class of 2021 has a close relation who had been at the university; 18% has at least one parent there. Nor is the practice confined to top institutions. A survey of 499 admission directors by Inside Higher Ed found that 42% of those at private universities used legacy preference.
"Legacy preference is, as Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and editor of 'Affirmative Action for the Rich.' points out, both entirely un-American and uniquely American. It flies in the face of the ideas on which America was founded -- the rejection, as Thomas Jefferson pit it, of the 'artificial aristocracy' based on birth, which had corrupted Britain, in favour of a 'natural aristocracy' based on 'virtue and talents.' No other serious university system permits it. Universities in Britain, the only country represented in the Times Higher Education league of the world's top ten universities, use test scores supplemented , in some institutions, with an interview.
"In the 1920s, Ivy League college administrators feared that relying too much on exams to screen applicants would yield a high numbers of Jewish students. They set up admission systems which embedded legacy preference. * * *
" * * * University administrators point out that legacy applicants' SAT scores tend to be higher than average -- not surprising, since they tend to be richer and therefore better-prepared. * * *
"More than two-thirds of Americans are against it. * * *
"MIT, which does not favour legacies, has need-blind admissions. * * *
Note:
(a) wash (vi):
"6 b (1) : to undergo testing successfully : WORK <an interesting theory, but it just won't wash>
(2) : to gain acceptance : inspire belief <the story didn't wash with me>'
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wash
(b) paragraph 2: "a case in the Supreme Court in which Asian-American plaintiffs allege that Harvard's admissions system is racially biased has thrown a light on preference given to different groups, including “legacies”—the children of alumni. Their parents do not have to fork out for them to be favoured, but since alumni are universities' principal source of donations after foundations, institutions that practice legacy preference defend it as essential."
The case is not in "Supreme Court," but rather in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts" (based in Boston).
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