Help the Rich! Boost Your Endowment! Legacy Admissions Are the Answer

To the Editor:

In "Legacy Admissions Are Defensible, Because the Process Can't Be 'Fair'" (The Review, March 14), Debra Thomas and Terry Shepard try to defend the indefensible.

The authors point out that colleges' admissions decisions cannot be fair because there is no single objective standard of merit for deciding among "qualified" applicants. That may be true, although colleges do seem generally capable of distinguishing between more- and less-qualified applicants. However,

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First Person

4 Rules of Lateness
Notes From Academe

Coal Into Honey
Commentary

Skeptical of Slippage

Past Coverage

Legacy Admissions Are Defensible, Because the Process Can't Be 'Fair' - March 14, 2003
New Pressure Put on Colleges to End Legacies in Admissions - January 30, 2004
Americans See Money for College Somewhere Over the Rainbow - April 30, 2004
When Legacies Are a College's Lifeblood - January 19, 2007
Children of Alumni Are Uniquely Harmed by Admissions Preferences, Study Finds - April 6, 2007

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