<p>Children of alumni who gain a boost in college admissions due to their legacy status are more likely to suffer academically than minority students or athletes who also receive an admissions edge, according to a new study by two Princeton University researchers. </p>
<p>The article ignores the fact that URMs and athletes get a lot more academic support than legacies. Once in college, legacies can't be differentiated from normal students. However, URMs and athletes get access to special remedial or tutoring programs that normal students don't get. The article even admits that URMs and athletes get larger boosts in admissions and thus have lower SAT scores than legacies. One must look for hidden factors as to why URMs and athletes outperform higher scoring legacies.</p>
<p>I'd say it's because minorities are more likely to have lower grades due to subpar schools (not lack of ability/motivation) and athletes often have to keep up a certain gpa to maintain scholarships/team membership.</p>
<p>I'd like to see the data on income levels broken down by ethnicity. Of course, no college would dare print it. Hurray for US News, without them we'd still be in the dark ages with no data on colleges except for their advertising.</p>
<p>The disparity in income levels won't be as large as in the general population. People have the crazy idea that most of the URM's who get into Ivies have had to overcome significant economic disadvantages when in reality most of them are from middle-upper class families just like the whites/asians who are accepted to ivies.</p>
<p>I agree xtefii, I'm black and people think it is helping me get into schools. Also I'm one of the smartest kids in my school and have test scores to prove it. also a friend of mine got into a good school. he happens to be european.
I overheard someone say he got in because he is French. I'm so tired of HATERS!!!</p>
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<p>Legacies, on the other hand, effectively bypass the admissions process.<<</p>
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<p>This is incorrect. They apply through the same process as everybody else. Being a legacy cetainly can be a boost, for example at Stanford the legacy admission rate is ~25% vs. ~13% rate for the general population. However, this also means that three quarters of all legacies get REJECTED. That's hardly a by-pass of the admissions process.</p>
<p>I'm sure there's no such thing as a "typical" legacy, but one might deduce that legacies at elite colleges often come from comparatively privileged backgrounds. In some cases (though certainly not all), could this lead to somewhat less motivation, or perhaps a sense of entitlement, that minority or athletic admits might not exhibit? When discussing family-owned businesses, it's common wisdom that the second and third generation owners are rarely as competent or motivated as the founder(s). I certainly wouldn't want to imply that all legacy candidates are lazy ne'er-do-wells; since the study is looking at broad statistics, though, a smattering of unmotivated admittees could bring down the average.</p>
<p>One also expects that athletes at highly selective colleges may not resemble athletes at less selective schools. Many of the most selective schools offer no athletic scholarships, and student-athletes may turn down high-value scholarships at other schools for the privilege of being admitted. That sounds like real motivation - these kids are looking for a top-notch education, not a place to continue playing a sport for another four years.</p>
<p>Besides, as Newsweek informed us last week, exercise makes you smarter! :)</p>
<p>I also think that being an Asian applying to college is not nearly unusual enough to be helpful for college admissions. </p>
<p>It would be more helpful for college admissions to be a member of one of the last known cannibal tribes – the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Now that's an under repesented minority.</p>
<p>I think anyone with an admissions edge through race, legacy status, athletic ability, or income is getting an unfair advantage. </p>
<p>A lot of the URMs at my school don't do or try as much because they know that as long as they can get a decent score or grade, they'll get into nice schools for their status. </p>
<p>At our school, we've got programs such as Black Scholars, African-American Achievers, Hispanic Society, and CAN (College Access Now) that focus on helping URMs succeed in school and applying to colleges.
We should instead focus more on providing remedial, support, and educational programs and groups like those mentioned above for underpriveleged students in high school to prepare them when they apply to colleges. That way, everyone will be on as equal a footing as we can get when applying to colleges.</p>
<p>I think all the boosts directed at URMs are misguided. These admissions boosts should be directed at underprivileged applicants, regardless of race. They are the ones who need the help to get an even footing. There's lots of rich URMs who get a boost applying to colleges that they probably don't deserve. On the other hand there's also probably fair amounts of poor white and asian kids who need a boost and don't get it.</p>
<p>I love how every topic that has minority mentioned in it always turns into a thread about how URM'S have it easy...I thought this was about legacies and how they don't necessarily deserve the advantage there getting?</p>