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College sports grew wildly popular with the public. yale squared off against harvard in the final game of the season. spawning powerful athletic departments and loyal alumni. i think if you gave the average college president at these kinds of colleges a few drinks and said, do you want to dial this down, they would say yes. but they would say, the alumni, i would just hear from them immediately and they would put up a big fuss. college presidents like to talk about meritocracy but in fact they kept key elements of the old aristocracy in place like athletics and legacies. yale was found more than two centuries ago by ten congregational clergymen. when one college president tried to take on legacies, all hell broke loose. kingman brewster was yale s president. ....
Famous for finally admitting women to the college. he was eager to make yale more inclusive, courting more applicants from public schools. and he slashed legacy admissions by almost half in just one year. disaster. immediate disaster. the alumni revolted. yale graduate william f. buckley jr. lamented that the son of an alumnus now has less chance of getting in from some boy from p.s. 109 somewhere. alumni contribution fell off a cliff. eventually brewster gave in and ever since, no ivy league school has dared to take on the preference for alumni s children. they re terrified what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference. but there are great schools ....
Out there that avoid legacy preference. and they re doing just fine. cal tech doesn t cater to alumni kids, and it has one of the largest endowments in the nation. even oxford and cambridge with their centuries of hallowed tradition refuse to favor alumni children. their endowments are well into the billions. we like to think that england is the land of social class and aristocracy and america is the land of democracy. but at least in college admissions, the reverse appears to be true. when you add up all the admissions preferences at elite schools, like legacies, recruited athletes, and children of wealthy donors, you get an astounding number. at some schools, it s around 50% of the class. that is the behavior that s typical of some moribund, irrelevant, corrupt private ....
but there are great schools out there that avoid legacy preference. and they re doing just fine. cal tech doesn t cater to alumni kids, and it has one of the largest endowments in the nation. even oxford and cambridge with their centuries of hallowed tradition refuse to favor alumni children. their endowments are well into the billions. we like to think in this country that england is the land of social class and aristocracy and america is the land of democracy, but at least in college admissions the reverse appears to be true. when you add up all the admissions preferences at elite schools, like legacies, recruited athletes, and children of wealthy donors, you get an astounding number. at some schools, it s around 50% of the class. that is the behavior that s ....
Getting in from some boy from p.s. 109 somewhere. eventually brewster gave in and ever since, no ivy league school has dared to take on the preference for alumni s children. they re terrified what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference. but there are great schools out there that avoid legacy preference. and they re doing just fine. cal tech doesn t cater to alumni kids, and it has one of the largest endowments in the nature. even oxford and cambridge with their centuries of hallowed tradition refuse to favor alumni children. their endowments are well into the billions. we like to think that england is the land of social class and ....