<p>An excerpt from an interview to appear in the Yale Daily News.</p>
<p>YDN: We understand that you are implementing changes for legacy admissions procedures?</p>
<p>Levin: Yes. I am disappointed that Yale rejects only 70% of legacy applicants. Many of these rejected legacy applicants are fully qualified to attend Yale, just like many of the other rejects. But, my objective is to reject 90% of the legacy applicants in the near future. Yale should be a leader in inflicting pain equally among all applicants. Besides, I enjoy the phone calls from the snob alumni whining about why their children are entitled to admission at my university. They break up the day and are much more fun than dealing with the faculty bores.</p>
<p>YDN: How do you plan to make this happen?</p>
<p>Levin: As you know, my hands are tied by two things. One is the university policy of legacy preference. The other is the fact that the legacy applicant pool is actually statistically stronger that the non-legacy pool. But I am an economist and know that statistics dont tell the real story. Anyone who has a family member that has spent time at Yale and in this crummy town must have serious character flaws. It will be the job of the admissions office to identify these flaws and I am confident that they will. From now on, all legacy applicants will require a drug test and background investigation in addition to the normal application. If, for instance, a legacys parents have books in their house, that would be cause for serious concern. Using a tutor would be grounds for immediate disqualification. I could go on, but you get the idea. Also a non-refundable alumni contribution must be submitted with the application.</p>
<p>YDN: Will the size of the contribution matter?</p>
<p>Levin: Draw your own conclusion.</p>
<p>YDN: Were there any other factors in this policy change?</p>
<p>Levin: Well, yes there were. Our football team stinks. Handsome Dan was so disgusted that he rolled over and died this year. I figure I can replace some of these effete legacy admits with 350 lb football players from Texas. And the hockey team. Dont even go there.</p>
<p>Nice job, YDN. :) (Besides, we all know Levin must be lying when he claims that admitted legacies have higher average grades and test scores than the rest of the class and "also tend to get higher grades than non-legacy students with comparable high school GPAs and test scores." After all, people on CC remember seeing or hearing that legacies get in with slightly inferior stats, and hearsay is certainly more reliable than a direct statement from a university president.)</p>
<p>;) Ivyqueen - yes, haven't we all learned that detailed statistics from a properly selected cross-section of a population will always be trumped by a single anecdote from someone whose sister's friend's cousin once heard of someone who went to school with someone who was an exception to the rule?</p>
<p>Yes, but legacies are still not represented by many URMs, so it's still mostly the rich entitled network whose legacy kids are applying. And since the magnetism of HYP is such that a large number of students are applying even if they don't have a snowball's chance, it would indeed be strange if the legacy applicants as a group were not better qualified.</p>
<p>
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...the magnetism of HYP is such that a large number of students are applying even if they don't have a snowball's chance...
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Interesting point. Does anyone have any data about the average stats of HYP applicants?</p>
<p>Also, it doesn't seem entirely clear whether Levin meant that admitted legacies have higher stats than the average applicant--or than the average member of their Yale class. He seems unambiguous, however, about the actual performance of legacy students at Yale.</p>