LEGACY preference in college admissions is a longstanding practice that has come under heavy scrutiny of late. And as presidential candidates assail the practice on the campaign trail, major universities eliminate their legacy preference systems and the socially conscious demand fairness above all else, the stage seems set for a rethinking of the University's own admissions policies. But before we sacrifice legacy preferences on the altar of fairness, the University must ask itself if fairness is really the goal of admissions policy and if legacy preferences are really unfair.
The standard complaint about legacy preference is that it grants certain students an unearned advantage in the college admissions battle -- if schools are devoted to the advancement of knowledge, then a student's academic potential is the only legitimate consideration in admissions decisions.
Such is a noble argument, but the reality of college admissions is more complex. In the first place, those who claim that legacy preferences are inconsistent with a merit -based admissions policy must show that legacy status is not a merit. And this task, easy in the abstract, becomes rather difficult in view of the many contributions that legacies make to the University.
The most obvious of these is financial. As the economy sputters and the General Assembly slashes its contributions to higher education, alumni donations become ever more important. And in the endless struggle to provide for the University's financial future, legacies open their pocketbooks at a vastly higher rate than non-legacies. According to the University Office of Development, 65 percent of legacies (defined as alumni whose parents or children are also alumni) contributed to the last capital campaign, compared with 41 percent of non-legacies. Legacies also gave more, contributing an average of $34,759, while non-legacies contributed only $4,070.
Legacies also add to the life and culture of the University. According to Director of Alumni Activities Wayne Cozart, legacy students are more likely to be involved in extra-curricular activities and student government organizations than their non-legacy counterparts. And after graduation, legacies are more likely to become life members of the alumni association and active participants in reunions, regional alumni organizations and fundraising events.
Legacies, then, make large and varied contributions to the University as students and as alumni. But do those contributions justify their unearned advantages in the University's admissions process?
According to Admissions Dean John Blackburn, those advantages are not so great as is commonly thought. The primary means by which the University assists out-of-state legacies is by treating them as in-state applicants throughout the admissions process. In-state legacies receive no special consideration. Legacy status, then, is an advantage in the admissions process, but not a get-into-U.Va.-free card.
Indeed, legacies are a highly qualified group who would be competitive applicants even without legacy preferences. According to the Office of Admissions, out-of-state legacies (those receiving an advantage in the admissions process) had an average SAT score of 1349 over the past four years, 35 points higher than the University average of 1314. Their average high school GPA was over 4.0, compared with 3.97 for the University in general, and83 percent of them graduated in the top decile of their high school class. This group also performed well in their first year at the University, earning an average GPA of 3.19, compared with 3.10 for the student body in general.
Legacies, then, are not merely well connected dunces who take the place of better applicants. They are well qualified students who take the place of a few exceptionally qualified students. And if such a tradeoff seems unfair, a serious accounting of the University's interests suggests that a few valedictorians is a small price to pay for the benefits that legacies bring to the Academical Village.
The goal of admissions policy is not simply to reward students for their past accomplishments by admitting the most accomplished. Rather, it is to select the group of students who will best serve the University's mission of teaching, learning and preparing individuals for enlightened citizenship. And this group does not just include those students with the best academic records. It also includes those students whose past accomplishments may be less than those of other applicants, but who can be counted on to succeed at the University and contribute to its upkeep long after graduation.
Legacy preference is no mere act of elitism, but an important policy with tangible benefits to the schools that use it. And given the demonstrated value of legacies to the University, it would be an act of great shortsightedness to abandon their preferential admission in the vain pursuit of perfect fairness.
(Alec Solotorovsky is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at asolotorovsky@cavalierdaily.com.)
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