T he return of many alumni for Homecoming was an illustrative reminder of the community that lives on after graduation. The wave of collective pride felt across campus blossomed into a welcomed instance of camaraderie at a university that often suffers from a deficit in school spirit.
We owe it to our alumni to cultivate bonds of friendship and strive to ensure that their college days are remembered not only with intellectual appreciation but also with some sense of emotional tenderness and affinity.
But what do we owe their children?
Considering the overwhelming majority of our peers, Tufts believes they deserve a little extra consideration in the admissions office. This is a nod to tradition, with an inherent assumption that by extending Tufts kinship to our graduates' children, we will yield greater loyalty and contributions to our alma mater.
But in practice, a preference for the children of alumni amounts to favoring applicants who, quite frankly, don't need any more help.
In contrast with guidelines generally designed to favor only those historically excluded from higher education, this custom does exactly the opposite. Giving an edge to legacy applicants essentially amounts to assisting predominantly white, well−off applicants from highly educated families.
Of course, this is a sweeping generalization. A brilliant, multi−racial exception to that archetype — one of many, I'm sure — lives under my roof. Still, in favoring the children of former students, we in essence perpetuate admissions trends tainted by comparative homogeneity. In comparison with the quarter of our freshman class that are "students of color," records from the 1970s show Tufts minority enrollment hovering around 10 percent, noting that these numbers are likely inflated.
Favoring legacies does more than exacerbate racial skews. Students who have parents that attended schools like Tufts are much more likely to be raised with an emphasis on education and benefit from their parents' familiarity with the competitive admissions process. These students are also more from a higher economic rung, as Tufts alumni make significantly more than the average citizen. Besides the demographic factors, considering a relative's attendance slips into considering a relative's donations — a messy prospect that opens up floodgates for corruption and adds even more leverage to an applicant's wallet.
Some have even questioned the legal implications of favoring legacy applicants. It arguably conflicts with the 14th Amendment's prohibition of favoritism based on lineage and civil rights legislation banning discrimination based on ancestry. As a private institution, Tufts can evade many of these legal dilemmas. Still, approving policies that run opposite our nation's core values is unsettling and symbolically condones aristocratic traditions.
Though often claimed to hold comparatively trivial weight, studies have shown that legacy status has the effect of adding 160 SAT points. Though Tufts does not provide admissions rates for legacies, statistics from neighboring institutions demonstrate the sway. For Harvard's Class of 2009, 40 percent of students with legacy status were admitted, compared to the overall 11 percent acceptance rate.
This is not to say that the majority, if not all, of our legacy students are not qualified to attend Tufts. In fact, this policy inadvertently hurts those that would have gotten in without it — it allows legacy status to question the legitimacy of their acceptance and is often a lingering source of doubt in these students' subconscious contemplations. Furthermore, recent research has found no link between legacy admissions policies and rates of alumni contribution, meaning that favoring legacies may rest on a flawed premise.
Sustaining positive alumni relations helps emanate favorable perceptions of Tufts across America, but this can be achieved without giving preferential admissions treatment to their children. Abandoning these structures of archaic ancestral privilege would also swell our school pride, making our legacy one of equal opportunity.
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Amanda Johnson is a senior majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Amanda.Johnson@tufts.edu.
