<p>Thank goodness that universities do not sway to alumni pressure and "accept any alumni offspring who was not certified brain-dead and fill in the rest with a few ?bright kids!" as one Princeton alumnus so blithely put it. Most students fill out their apps in good faith - and not out of greed or lust to snag an Ivy or other elite acceptance - and are not affected by the stress and anxiety linked to the admissions process. Just the same, the admissions process is too often seen as a game to be won or lost - with an Ivy admit ticket being the win. To blame this on adcoms, who are on the front-line of the decision-making process seems to me hasty and ill-guided. Each institution has a bottom-line, guidelines etc. and yes while a certain number of slots do indeed go to qualified legacy, recruited athletes, and full-pay kids the halls of Ivy are decked with diversity these days. So, bottom-line - even if a legacy might enjoy a slightly greater chance of admission that in no way justifies deceit. Nobody likes being policed and it might even seem that students are being "blamed" but actually students are given quite a lot of slack. When it comes right down to it, in the sake of transparency, colleges and universities do have to send a stronger and clearer message to the effect that the end does not justify the means.</p>