43% of white Harvard students are legacy, athlete, or donor/staff related (2019)

Post by pknomad » Sun, Jul 02, 2023, 10:05 PM UTC

hgsgm wrote: post #99

pknomad wrote: post #84

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I don't feel like that's too surprising. There is that saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." It reminds me of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqi_6v2RGB0 Essentially a high school student (now a college student @ MIT) solved a conjecture on distribution of Carmichael numbers. The parents of the high school student also happens to be first rate mathematicians. I went to a southern ivy and many…

There's not what's happening. What's happening is (made up numbers, relative proportion a true) 1000 ALDC students qualify. 200 admit. 1000 non-ALDC students qualify, with equivalent resumes. 50 admit. Thus it's easier to get in at ALDC, all else equal, and les qualified ALDC displace "overqualified" non-ALDC, or if you believe their qualifications are truly equal and those 2000 students can't be compared to each oth…

Post by thrill » Sun, Jul 02, 2023, 10:12 PM UTC

kemayo wrote: post #98

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #85

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But the article doesn't deal with whether recruited athletes as a category are diverse. Probably, they are diverse and these statistics mean something remarkably different from the knee-jerk narrative in the article and many comments here.

Article doesn't, but the study it's based on does. Recruited athletes are less-diverse than the general applicant pool: > For example, recruited athletes, legacies, and dean’s interest list applicants are all over 68% white, yet the share of non-ALDC applicants who are white is less than 41%. All other racial groups see higher representation among non-ALDC applicants and admits than in any of the corresponding ALDC a…

Post by deely3 » Sun, Jul 02, 2023, 10:16 PM UTC

111111IIIIIII wrote: post #43

asdf6677 wrote: post #28

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> market themselves as being the height of meritocracy This is how they market themselves to the general public, but everyone knows that Harvard and its admission policies were designed by and for the ruling class to educate their children and build connections. A Harvard degree would have no value if it selected based on merit alone. A meritocracy would turn a school like Harvard into a factory for upper middle clas…

Would you please explain the logic for the dishonesty as you explained the logic for diverging from meritocracy? Surely there is a good reason for such an allegedly respectable institution misleading the public that pays its bills, yes?

Post by tnecniv » Sun, Jul 02, 2023, 10:24 PM UTC

simonster wrote: post #76

User23 wrote: post #41

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One reason that Harvard and the other ivies like legacy students is that they’re who grow up to be big donors. Edit: I’m willing to assume that Harvard’s admissions and development offices know what they’re doing, considering that they’ve been wildly successful for centuries.

If this is true ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences#Economic_im... suggests it's disputed), the effect is probably marginal, and in any case, Harvard has the largest academic endowment in the world. It seems unlikely that it needs legacy admissions to stay afloat.

Post by tnecniv » Sun, Jul 02, 2023, 10:27 PM UTC

User23 wrote: post #41

mdorazio wrote: post #12

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Universities like Harvard typically like to market themselves as being the height of meritocracy, going so far as to proudly declare their miniscule acceptance rates. It's hard to square that with a very obvious preference for students from a specific background regardless of merit.

One reason that Harvard and the other ivies like legacy students is that they’re who grow up to be big donors. Edit: I’m willing to assume that Harvard’s admissions and development offices know what they’re doing, considering that they’ve been wildly successful for centuries.