It causes harm to minority students
Legacy admissions have historically benefited white applicants because they tend to make the majority of the legacy pool. Legacy preferences can take the spot of well-deserving students of color who do not have the luck nor privilege of being born to parents who are alumni.
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The Argument
Colleges should put an end to legacy admissions because they do harm to minority students. Legacy admissions are policies that benefit white people the most.
For instance, Harvard is the best-known institution for legacy admissions and a study found that at Harvard almost 70 percent of all legacy applicants are white.[1] Because legacy students at these schools are more likely to be white than non-legacy students, the existence of legacy preferences limits access for African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American students.[2]
Legacy admission policies should be put to an end because they support the racist and discriminatory systems that limit the extent to which minorities can achieve the same success as their white counterparts.
Counter arguments
Colleges should not put an end to legacy admissions because they tend to put policies in place to benefit minorities in the admissions process.
Colleges tend to give consideration to things like race and ethnicity when making admission decisions to ensure diversity and access to opportunities for people of all races and backgrounds. They also give consideration to things like whether or not an applicant is first generation or the socioeconomic background from which they come from; this consideration often benefits minority students.
Furthermore, colleges put in policies such as affirmative action that help to improve the educational opportunities for members of minority groups and are designed to eliminate the unlawful discrimination that has historically existed among minority groups.[3]
Legacy admissions should continue because colleges make sure they take efforts to benefit their minority applicants and students.
Proponents
Premises
Rejecting the premises
References
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/study-harvard-finds-43-percent-white-students-are-legacy-athletes-n1060361#:~:text=Almost%2070%20percent%20of%20all,those%20categories%2C%20the%20authors%20found.
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/why-we-ended-legacy-admissions-johns-hopkins/605131/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/business/at-elite-colleges-racial-diversity-requires-affirmative-action.html