Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard exposed how Ivy League admissions favored not only blacks and Hispanics but also the children of affluent alumni and donors at the expense of others—especially Asian-Americans.
Three economists found that for high-school graduates between 2010-15, a legacy or a child of a donor or faculty who ranked in the top 20% of his high-school class was four to six times as likely to be admitted as other students with similar qualifications.
Harvard claims its legacy preferences serve a “community-building function” and that scrapping the practice might jeopardize alumni “generous financial support.”
Read the full column in The Wall Street Journal.
Allysia Finley is a member of the Journal's Editorial Board.
Ms. Finley joined The Wall Street Journal in 2009 after graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. During college, she edited the opinions section for The Stanford Review and wrote columns for The Orange County Register.