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NewsvineAs undergraduate admission grows increasingly competitive, the impact of legacy status on admission decisions has raised questions about what role it should play in the admission process.
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According to Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid Richard Shaw, approximately 20 percent of the matriculating freshmen of the Class of 2011 had a parent who received an undergraduate or graduate degree from Stanford.
“We are comfortable with considering intergenerational relationships to the University,” Shaw said. “Legacy applicants come from highly educated families and must be competitive to be successful in the admission process at Stanford.”
Howard Wolf ‘80, vice president for Alumni Affairs and president of the Stanford Alumni Association, agreed that legacy admissions are critical to Stanford’s future as an elite institution.
“I see only advantages to Stanford of our current legacy admission policy,” he said. “The transfer of intergenerational loyalty, and the relationships between the University and its graduates that support this loyalty, are supremely important to Stanford and its future.”
Though both Shaw and Wolf emphasized that legacy status is only one of the many factors considered in the admission process, some students question whether it should be considered at all.
“I think the idea of the system is elitist,” said Avery Halfon ‘10. “Though I haven’t met a single legacy student who does not deserve to be here, I think the policy is unfair because it is not merit-based.”
Jessica Perez ‘10 added that while the policy is not bad in practice, it should not be considered in the admission process.
“Whether or not a student’s parents attended Stanford University shouldn’t be something that admissions considers when deciding whether to accept a student,” Perez said. “You can’t tell whether or not a student is prepared for the University based on what their parents did.”
Some students, both legacy and first generation, argued that the policy is too complex to be branded either good or bad.
“Legacy admission means a lot of different things to different people,” said Hanna Michelsen ‘10. “I think people assume that legacy admits are likely to succeed here. Because their parents came here, it is much more likely that they have cultivated an environment in which education was supported and kept as a priority.”
Shaw stood behind the policy.
“It is often very misconceived that children of graduates of Stanford or like institutions get in simply because of their legacy status,” Shaw said. “This is not correct. They must meet the very high expectations of all candidates and they must be exceedingly well educated and competitive.”
But one legacy admit questioned Shaw’s defense, suggesting that legacy status may have played a much larger role in the student’s admission.
“I definitely feel that being a legacy really saved me in the admission process,” said a third-generation legacy sophomore who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Though I worked really hard in high school, I think that without being a legacy it would have been a lot harder for me to get in.”
That alumni make up the majority of Stanford’s donors makes the issue all the more contentious.
“It’s all about the money,” said Soroush Salehiah ‘10. “I don’t think that this policy will end anytime soon because the University depends on these donations and the services that alumni provide. Legacy is like a reward.”