A new law banning legacy and donor admissions at private California universities, including USC and Stanford — among the handful of schools that admit a significant number of children of alumni or donors — was signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the action will promote equal educational opportunities. “In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom said in a statement. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.” The law affects a small number of private institutions in the state that consider family connections in admissions. Others that currently embrace the practice include Santa Clara University and Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd colleges.I went to Princeton University. It scores very highly on US News and other ratings, in part because its graduates speak fondly of it. It is the best college that focuses on undergraduates. At least it used to be.
When I first went there, it was obvious that admissions criteria were very uneven. Many were super-smart scholars in all subjects and ace their classes. Some also got in because they were concert pianists, lacrosse players, or something else. But the strangest category to me were the legacy admissions. I could not see any justification for them.
Later on, one of those legacy admittees invited me to join a gang students attending the Saturday football game. I would not have gone otherwise. Then I discovered that Princeton had school songs, and these guyes knew them. Soon I was regularly attending the football games, singing the school songs, and having fun.
Then it all made sense. Legacy admissions allow a college to maintain a culture that persists over time. Without them, I would not have the same school spirit, or learned the school songs.
This California law seems to be some sort of misguided retaliation for the Supreme Court limits on affirmative action.
I am not sure Princeton is as good as it used to be. It just refused institutional neutrality, and fired a good tenured professor a couple of years ago.
1 comment:
Roger,
You miss the forest for the trees.
'Legacy' admissions is about money. It always has been. Higher education's dirty little secret: As much as they pretend to despise the evil capitalists, they are in fact very very fond of money. Alumni give tremendous amounts of money and prestige to colleges. Of course colleges are already working on new and interesting ways of convincing their biggest sugar daddy (the government) to give them ever more funds.
If you want the truth, best not to ask a whore who is paid to lie.
"Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man's lifetime income - which he then spends sending his son to college."
Bill Vaughan
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