The Case for Legacy Admissions
- sofiapbaker
- Jul 18, 2023
- 1 min read
In my 38 years teaching at Harvard, I have only twice met members of Harvard’s governing boards, both at dinners. The first time I had no clue about the man sitting beside me. He asked about my family, which I thought an odd question. It turned out to be a conversational gambit allowing him to let slip that his ancestors had come over on the Mayflower. That was rattling enough for a young professor, but what surprised me even more was his follow-up remark. He confessed sadly that his son’s generation would be the first in his family not to serve Mother Harvard. His son hadn’t been accepted into Harvard College.
On the second occasion I knew who I would be sitting next to, because I had been instructed to mention the financial needs of Harvard’s Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, on whose board I served. My dinner partner said he wasn’t making further gifts to Harvard until he found out whether his last grandchild had gotten in. The previous seven had all been rejected. I remember being impressed at the incorruptibility of Harvard’s admissions office. (This was in the 1990s.)
Over the years I’ve met quite a few undergraduates who qualify as legacies. In my experience they tend not to draw attention to themselves…