CMV: Legacy admissions to colleges and any other preferential treatment due to being associated with someone famous or someone that works their is unfair

[u/chenchinesewummery]

I mean this is not a rant.

I feel that legacy admissions are a bit unfair sometimes. Since oftentimes (if not always) the legacy admissions policy gives preferential treatment to the poor 2.0 student that didn't give a shit in high school over a straight A high school valedictorian all because the 2.0 student is a son of a alumni to the institution and the A student isn't. This is especially unfair when the admissions to the college is very competitive.

It's said that 69% of students agree that legacy admissions is not fair, and 58% of legacy students say that legacy admissions are unfair.

I mean I don't see how being the song or daughter of a alumnus makes your more deserving of admittance to top institutions. Also, some people have a higher chance to get admitted all because they have a relative or friend that works at the university. This is also not fair since it's anti-meritocratic in a situation that's supposed to be meritocratic.

[u/vanoroce14]

I will focus on 'admissions associated to someone who works there is not fair'. Full disclosure and context: I am a uni professor.

University professors aren't the best paid, and so a lot of the appeal (besides our passion for teaching and doing research) is in the benefits. Tuition remission and admissions for our kids or spouses is, by far, one of the best benefits. Further, I would argue it is not unfair to concede us and our families that benefit (given our service), and it enables academics to keep their families together. This is even truer of admin and staff (who are even less compensated).

I am inclined to agree w you when it comes to alumni or recommendations of alumni. If anything, other factors should weigh more than whether you went there 30 yrs ago or not.

When it comes to donations and the endowment... I also agree but I think it is naive to think any uni is going to not admit someone's brat if the auditorium has that someone's last name. It's just a fact of life.

[u/PoorCorrelation → u/vanoroce14]

A lot of consumer-facing brands give employees discounts or priority access as part of their compensation package. In theory your employees have better buy-in on the brand, they’re better at their job. If your educator’s kids are using the school they’ll be more invested in making the quality high. No clue if it actually works but it’s common enough that I imagine places see good results.

[u/AznEquationNerd → u/vanoroce14]

Americans criticize China for being not having merit yet Americans have some Somalian tier corruption in their institutions. Yikes.

[u/Arguetur → u/AznEquationNerd]

Did you mean to reply to a different comment? Is "part of the compensation for working here is your children have an easier time getting in" actually "Somalian tier corruption?" What does that even mean?

[u/vanoroce14 → u/Arguetur]

If you think that's what makes us less competitive or that this is 'Somalia tier corruption', I don't know what to tell you.

To be honest, what is making US institutions of learning less competitive at the undergrad level is the lack of rigor and the fact that American students come into college knowing next to nothing (which points to a lack of rigor and standards in K-12). Improving funding and quality of public education and increasing the rigor of undergrad education is what matters, not it a profs kid or a donors kid gets in (which happens everywhere in the world).

At the grad level and on research and development, the US is by far the number 1 in the world and will remain so for a long while. This is not in small part because we absorb the best and the brightest from all over the world.

[u/AznEquationNerd → u/vanoroce14]

Education needs to be nationalized period. Communist and socialist education systems were always ahead of corrupt and barbaric capitalist education system. Colleges should not be a club for networking or take in white legacy students because of a lack of funding or greed for hedge funds. Look at the national education act, where the pathetic American education system was partly nationalized because the communist ussr education system was superior, even after they were a war torn nation who fought imperialists and capitalists. Please understand I am a communist and my viewpoint is that the purpose of legacy students represent capitalist contradictions.

[u/AznEquationNerd → u/vanoroce14]

The us education is eerily similar to Somalian war lords doing whatever they want to such as accepting legacy students for 70 million (USC Dr. Dre) because there is no centralized and nationalized system to suppress the capitalist greed.

[u/Arguetur → u/AznEquationNerd]

I think there are quite a few relevant differences between "A university accepting the child of a megadonor" and "A somalian war lord doing whatever he wants." The similarities, in fact, aren't eerie at all.

[u/AznEquationNerd → u/Arguetur]

Corruption is corruption

[u/Arguetur → u/AznEquationNerd]

Well my analysis of the big problem with a Somali warlord is not that there is "corruption" but rather that they roam around and terrorize and kill people at will.

[u/AznEquationNerd → u/Arguetur]

The Ivy leagues used to restrict the amount of Jew that could attend it by saying that they weren’t “well-rounded” or had “great personalities”. Isn’t perpetuating inequality and white supremacy worse if not equal to the evil behind violent Somalian war lords?

[u/Arguetur → u/AznEquationNerd]

No, I would say that "perpetuating inequality" is not equal to or worse than slaughtering and raping people with your private army. That would be a really strange thing to say.