Legacies Have Leg Up in College Admissions

October 7, 2010

Ever wonder about legacy preferences in college admissions?  Richard D. Kahlenberg’s book “Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions” examines legacy admission practices at a number of institutions including Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth.

The Choice blog, a feature of The New York Times, explores the issue and cites Mr. Kahlenberg’s research from Princeton showing that “being the child of an alumnus adds the equivalent of 160 SAT points to one’s application (using the traditional 400-to-1600-point scale, and not factoring in the new writing section of the test) and increases one’s chances of admission by almost 20 percentage points.”

Richard D. Kahlenberg’s book Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions can be ordered through Amazon.com.

The Choice blog, with more details from Richard D. Kahlenberg’s book, can be found at:  http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/legacy/ and  http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/rich/

Tags: , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on October 7, 2010 at 8:28 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comments are closed.

About Lynn Lubell

Lynn Radlauer Lubell is the Publisher of InLikeMe.com, an internationally renowned website for college-bound students, parents and guidance counselors, and the Founder of Admission by Design, an educational consultancy.

A graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School, Lynn completed the IECA's Principles and Practices Institute for Educational Consultants and has broad expertise in college admission strategy and planning.

Lynn served on the MIT Educational Council for ten years interviewing hundreds of undergraduate applicants.

Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Admission by Design, consults with students and families in South Florida and beyond.

Biography - Lynn Lubell