Yes, but we are talking choosing between applicants who are all able to score in the ballpark for these schools. Accepting a wealthy kid whose parent went to a different highly competitive school rather than a legacy kid does not necessarily make things more fair.
Natural athletic ability may be unearned, but significant hard work goes into any student who is good enough to be recruited and play in collegeā¦one can dramatically improve coordination, flexibility and speed via training. Most college athletes werenāt born with the skill set necessary to play in college regardless their sport.
Fundamentally, athletic recruiting is fiercely competitive, with a low āadmitā rate (single digits at the highly rejectives), and based on merit. I get that some people donāt want colleges to value that merit, but like it or not, athletics are highly valued by college administrators and boards, and an important piece of the college experience for many students.
This happens now to a not-insignificant degree, and I agree will continue and accelerate, especially if a school like Harvard stops considering legacy (as one of dozens of factors) in their admission process.
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However, many of those other unearned attributes correlate to previous disadvantage or lesser advantage, while legacy correlates to previous advantage. So (for example) if some Harvard legacies and some FGLI applicants presented similar achievements, the latter are likely to have actually achieved more considering their likely fewer advantages and greater barriers that they had to work through.
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But legacies arenāt really competing against FGLI applicants; they are in different buckets. Legacies at Harvard are competing against upper middle class or upper class kids whose parents attended Yale or Wesleyan or UT.
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Absolutely. My hat is off to those kids. I do think they were born with the body type, athleticism, and potential for their sport. Many kids who want to play, and are just as dedicated, were not. You donāt see those kids because most drop out of sports. There are not many recreational programs for teens. At our high school, you can sometimes find them on the cross country team because they donāt have cuts. Unlike the team leaders, who can all break a five minute mile, they are not skinny, smooth, running machines, but I think they are putting forth just as much, if not more, effort.
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Agree, and when we look at comparing average excellent kids from similar backgrounds (affluent, well educated families), the legacy boost could be significant in coin toss situations. But I canāt get too excited about the āinjusticeā inflicted on affluent, well resourced applicants.
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BTW my DO told me that most āanonymousā donors are known by the school. They elect to remain anonymous to the public for a variety of reasons. But the development team knows.
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I understand, itās too bad there arenāt more recreational programs for teens near you. Our area (which is sports-centric), has many levels of play but the numbers of kids playing sports does decrease as those who arenāt as good at sports and/or like something else better choose other things to spend their time on. Our HS has at least one no cut sports team for each gender each season.
This can be true for many other things as wellā¦English class, math class, SAT/ACT exam, etc. etc.
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But will they? The 2 students I know who were accepted to their T5 legacy schools were rejected from all other Ivy+ schools. Not even waitlisted. They were āaverage excellentā students-- no better, no worse. Unhooked average excellent students donāt get into Ivy+ schools.
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side note - but i 
cross country, and agree completely. My 2020** son had a great time with his team, everyone cheered for all because it was an accomplishment to just finish a race.
** and even now - 3 full years since HS, my son and 11 xc teamates got together on july fourth and had a kickball game for hours. XC is the best, too bad so many other sports have cuts in HS.
and ps; reading this thread as we do know some donor kids - never in our kids gifted classes, but nice kids, relatives of a 9-figure donor to an elite school. I canāt imagine that donor hook ever being taken away.
Time to change the buckets, I guess!
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Changing buckets hurts FGLI kids who would then have to compete with more accomplished better resourced kids.
Ivies will often reject kids they know will attend their parentsā legacy rather than their school. Harvard called our high school to see if my kid would likely attend her ( other Ivy) legacy before making the decision on her. Seems reasonable. No reason to waste a slot if the high school says she is going elsewhere.
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The composition of āthe bucketsā was not handed down on stone tablets from Mount Sinai. If FGLI students are valued, their bucket can be enlarged.
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FGLI is already a big bucket. 20% are Pell-eligible at Ivies. Not sure there is any interest in making that bucket even bigger or dealing with the ancillary issues ( more financial aid needed, more academic support, more housing issues)
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Talk about your insider trading.
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Probably a good thing, right? Didnt waste a slot and the high school gets credit for honesty. Private schools rely upon their relationships with colleges in offering realistic assessments.
Where the FGLI bucket will be enlarged from will be the URM buckets, although there will be some overlap. Highly selectives will still want the majority of their classes to be highly accomplished students using objective measures (the Harvard Academic rating). The richest pool for the meat and potatoes average excellent is always going to be from well resourced, highly educated families.
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Like most colleges, Wesleyan is need aware. Canāt expand that FGLI bucket much.
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Unlike Amherst and Williams, Wesleyan was able to absorb the equivalent of a Seven Sister college when it became coeducational. So, thereās a good chance that the size of a legacyās present-day class is about twice what it was when their grandparents attended and perhaps even when their parents did, if they married and/or had children late in life.
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