Argumentative Essay: Legacy Admissions

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Legacy Admission Debate There will never be a day that the world is fair. Discrimination is illegal now, but accepting people based on legacy remains legal. This adds more obstacles for minorities and gives people less of a chance of getting into a college, if they do not come from a college educated family. Universities may need the money they get from legacies to keep tuition affordable, and it might be impossible to function without it, but that does not change the fact that it is unfair and keeps everyone from having an equal opportunity. Legacy admissions should be banned because they allow students with average credentials to be accepted over students with far more impressive ones. People should be accepted for merit, rather than who their parents are, or how much money they have.…show more content…
An investigation by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights into Harvard University's admission practices in 1990 reported an identical finding. Nor is there any reason to believe that things have changed at these universities, given that neither has made any move to abandon legacy preferences - although both have announced more generous financial aid. Meanwhile, a 1999 study of the University of Virginia - widely regarded as a public "Ivy" - found that legacy students were 4.3 times more likely to get in over non-legacies with identical academic credentials. Universities defend legacy preferences on grounds that they help them raise funds from alumni, which they then use to subsidize poor kids. If this were true, universities most flush with alumni money would also be the most economically diverse.
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