<p>"Golden tracks shameful admissions policies at Duke, where the enrollment of privileged but underqualified applicants has helped elevate the school's endowment ranking from 25th in 1980 to 16th in 2005."
So asserts a review of an about-to-be published book on the influence of legacies on the adcoms of colleges/universities.
If true, this window on Duke's admissions has completely turned me off applying to the school.</p>
<p>hmmm...good thing Harvard and Yale used this 'shameful' practice for decades if not centuries before the press shined a light on this odious practice of fundraising. </p>
<p>Come talk to us the day Duke produces a legacy like W.</p>
<p>yes obviously Duke is alone in this practice. The university is also responsible for slavery, child labor, world famine, World War 2, and the wave of crappy reality TV.</p>
<p>This is true about every private University, but less so for public universities.
atistics
I think you will see this more in the Ivy League schools such as Dartmouth or Pton moreso than at Duke, but I am not sure about the comparable st</p>
<p>Honestly, we're in a time right now when people are looking to pin anything terrible on Duke - since, after all, we are CLEARLY the only university in the country with town-gown issues, rowdy athletes, and/or sexual assault. Or, at least, that seems to be popular opinion.</p>
<p>I heard someone once say (was it on here?) that every university has skeletons in its closet; our closet just currently happens to be wide open with all of the lights on and the entire country peering inside. Tons, TONS of private universities count legacy as a factor in admissions. Gahhh. When will people just leave Duke alone and stop taking every small problem that can be found at hundreds of places as an Only-At-Duke thing? Maybe I'm being ignorant in thinking this will ever happen, but I really want to know.</p>
<p>"yes obviously Duke is alone in this practice. The university is also responsible for slavery, child labor, world famine, World War 2, and the wave of crappy reality TV"</p>
<p>hey you might not be that far off...one of the original survivors (kelly goldsmith) was a 2002 duke alum, we just recently terminated our shady sweatshop practices and we do come from tobacco money...no wonder we're called the devils.</p>
<p>I know a direct relative of a member of the Duke family (as in, Benjamin Duke, James B. Duke, etc) who was waitlisted at Duke. Legacy may help you, but it won't help you that much... still need to meet some basic standard before you're considered, legacy or not.</p>
<p>Well then i guess you should be turned off to every private university in the country... thats too bad... it limits your choices.</p>
<p>If your family donates some serious bucks, you have a great chance of getting in. If one of your school building/hall name happens to be your family name, you are shoe-in.</p>
<p>That's why many students find it so shocking that there are so many dumb kids in top private colleges. Those kids wouldn't even make it to state school if they were poor - Hooray for Captialism !!! Actually, its a good thing for student diversity, and your GPA :p</p>
<p>If this turns you off applying to Duke, I guess you need to knock off schools 1-15 from your list, which, as I'd expect, are top school that you're considering. </p>
<p>Here's the thing: Duke is an amazing place. It makes sense for a parent to absolutely adore it and transfer that love to their children. It makes sense for younger siblings to have a wonderful time visiting their older siblings and want to apply. Once Duke is in your family, you never want the tradition to leave -- and that's only because we all love the place so much. There are plenty of chances when a money-donating legacy can't get their legitimately well qualified child into their alma mater which shows that legacy isn't everything, but the child's academic record and overall application that matters. Yes- there is an elaborate equation in determining admissions and yes that process does consider legacy status, but it's only a small piece to the pie. (Of course, it becomes a much larger piece of the pie if new BellTower dorm now bears your family name, or any other on-campus building!). But as for legacies at Duke-- if they're unqualified, I guess they sort of know, and they buckle down and, for the most part, try to work. As for other legacies (whose parents perhaps could donate money in some level)-- you don't even KNOW their parents came here unless it comes up in a random conversation. I know more Duke legacies than I thought, only because these students are just like any other non-legacy who got in without helping the school's endowment.</p>
<p>Yes, the college admissions process is a joke.</p>
<p>Legacies, "developmental" admits (i.e. rich kids), the rejection of "overqualified" students, race, geography, and athletes make college admissions an absurd exercise in non-academic talents. It causes divisions in the student body, a loss of faith in the institution's values, and the dumbing down of academic work. I seem to recall an article in the WSJ that indicates that about 50% of students at elite colleges are there based on their academic records; the rest have some other factor working in their favor.</p>
<p>Yes, the problem is bad at Duke. And no, the problem is not unique to Duke. It's endemic to all the elite universities in this country.</p>
<p>Well I believe for Duke... about 50% of legacies get in maybe? ...if you consider the fact that children of Duke grads are probably, on average, given better opportunities to succeed as a child than college applicants as a whole... and also have parents who care about education and colleges and such... the number isn't THAT amazingly striking. As others have said... at most top schools legacy is a boost... but not a shoe in unless there is some extreme tie.</p>
<p>Obviously legacy advantages are questionable in many ways... it would be nice if every kid that got into a school got there fully on individual merit (it doesn't happen like that)... still, when you consider it... there are some inherent advantages to accepting legacy kids: it keeps alums happy (most obvious reason)... if there parents could succeed there then there is at least a chance that their kids can as well... and there is a loyality to Duke that a lot of legacies already have. Granted... I'm sure some legacy kids just apply to see if they can get in with the help or whatnot... but still.</p>
<p>It's definately one of the less pretty aspects of our higher education system... but its not a reason to mark a school off of you list... there are a plethora of other reasons students get in even if they are academically less qualified than their peers. I mean every school with athletics gives advantages to those students (and a large part of good athletics is to bring in money... just as the goal seems to be with legacies)... URM get advantages... first generation college students get advantages... etc... etc.</p>
<p>One of my good friends at Duke is a direct descendant of the Duke's. His/her (protection of Identity) name is on a number of buildings around campus. Though he/she was certainly qualified, he/she got waitlisted and later got in. Legacies have some impact, but obviously not the shoe-in that everyone likes to think.</p>
<p>Legacies have the most weight when the alumni donate lots and lots of money, of course. And definitely, you want to keep high paying families around. Any institution wants to do that, unless they want to provide their students with below par facilities. I went to a pretty crappy high school, in terms of resources, and I'm happy to be going somewhere with money. Maybe some people had a better chance of getting in than others like me, but their better chance didn't significantly lower my chance. Both my parents, both my aunts, and my uncle are alumni, and yes, I was admitted. However, at no point during the process of admission did I feel like I would have a better chance of admission than anyone else. I believe I was admitted on my own personal merit rather than on the fact that my family went to Duke. I'm sure I'll get crap in the coming years from non-legacies, saying that I only got in because of my legacy, but I know that's not true.</p>
<p>And for that matter and on another note, I really am tired of people posting saying how "oh, I'm so turned off from applying because of such and such," or "convince me that Duke is a good place to go over x y and z colleges". If you need convincing, I don't want you to come, because I don't want to hear your whining later that you chose Duke over Harvard and how it was such a bad decision in the end. If you're turned off by whatever admissions policy, then don't apply. Fine. I'm not going to try and convince you that Duke's really worth it and that you should see beyond to its other merits, because if you don't like Duke based on whatever you have discovered, go find a school you do like.</p>
<p>This really is a message to a lot of people on this board, not just the OP. When I arrive at Duke in the fall, I want to see people who are happy to be there. I know enough people personally who are ALREADY whining about how much they hate Duke but they're going because they're sure they can transfer to Yale by sophomore year...after being outright rejected the first time. Please, people, take your kvetching somewhere else. </p>
<p>[/rant]</p>
<p>I'm on this board often but don't see people complaining about Duke...mostly about how hard it is to make a good schedule lol</p>
<p>Just do exceptionally well in high school, and you won't have to worry about legacies. :D</p>
<p>I enjoyed several of the posts in this thread - especially the ones that go towards the idea that the "development" admits both build the buildings you work in and the curve you benefit from :)</p>