I totally, agree with the economic argument for legacy, but why is family tradition so important at an institution of Higher Learning? Schools aren't put their for families, they are for improving our society, socially, techologically (if that is a word) and economically. Not to benefit certain families. Why do the Bushes have any more right to go to Yale than I do, just because no one in my family went there. Again, this is aside from the economic argument which I agree with.
Are you saying that racial discrimination is the only discrimination possible or the only one that counts? Just curious.
Since as admitted legacy admission is for fundraising, there seems a much more efficient way. Why not just give bonus points based on high income. Surely being from a rich family is a much better predictor of donations than simply being a legacy case--why muddy the picture with the whole legacy thing if the intent is to fundraise.
Well, Asians have been immigrating to the U.S. for a long time and they were mostly very poor (remember who helped build the railroads? There was even a Chinese exclusion act to prevent Chinese from taking jobs! ). So, while Asians weren't "systematically brought over" there were a lot of them! I'm not going to argue that Asians had it as bad or even close to as bad as Africans did but it's not like all Asian immigrants came over on luxury liners. Certainly there is racism directed towards Asians so how is it that A) many Asians have done okay here in the states and B) they have done it without special laws. Of course, to say all Asians are doing well would be stereotyping but enough are doing well to make up a large percentage of admissions to some of those ivy leage colleges.
Private schools, no matter what their mission statement, are "put there" for profit. They are there to make money. Even State schools are in it for the dough (even if that's not their "primary" stated objective). That's why football (and basketball) gets so much more support then other sports - it makes schools money. That's also why legacies are encouraged because it generates money. Plus, legacy money is the best kind as it generally comes with no strings attached (as opposed to government money which has many strings attached).
