I guess this is just another flavor of claiming one's kid was a top rower for their high school crew team. But I guess many parents will use whatever means then can ( legal or illegal ) to give their children a leg up.
Also, I find it interesting that many schools ( in the US ) will do away with SAT scores because it is unfair to disadvantaged students. But they will not get rid of their legacy admissions program which is the most biased criteria against disadvantaged students. The irony here is that the SAT score was used to counter bias against disadvantaged students in the first place. It was viewed as the only "objective" part of the admissions process which could not be "bought".
My solution to end unfairness in college admissions process is a points based lottery. Each college publicly sets out a points system for GPA, extracurricular activity, SAT, athletics, legacy, etc that they will apply to an applicant and derive a score. Each college publicly sets a "mininum/cutoff" score. Every applicant with a score above the cutoff will enter an independently monitored lottery. The lottery will select the freshman class out of the pool of candidates.
Wow. I just found out about legacy admissions. To me that seems insane. This is not how it is supposed to be! I wouldn't want to apply there now. If I have to work really hard and other people get in by association ...
The lottery system is super injust for those that put the work but aren't admitted. A lot of countries in the developed world don't have the admission problem because they fund education properly.
Generally this problem is solved by having lottery buckets, with higher average grades giving access to a separate bucket (with more spots relative to the applicants). This gives people who "put the work" a higher chance to be admitted.
Legacy is unfair but the removal would lead to a tremendous outcry.
My favorite story of the legacy system being broken is at Stanford, where one girl's parents are Stanford grads, along with some of her grandparents. This means that she has a free pass as long as her academics aren't bad.
Legacy shouldn't span generations.
Also, I find it interesting that many schools ( in the US ) will do away with SAT scores because it is unfair to disadvantaged students. But they will not get rid of their legacy admissions program which is the most biased criteria against disadvantaged students. The irony here is that the SAT score was used to counter bias against disadvantaged students in the first place. It was viewed as the only "objective" part of the admissions process which could not be "bought".
My solution to end unfairness in college admissions process is a points based lottery. Each college publicly sets out a points system for GPA, extracurricular activity, SAT, athletics, legacy, etc that they will apply to an applicant and derive a score. Each college publicly sets a "mininum/cutoff" score. Every applicant with a score above the cutoff will enter an independently monitored lottery. The lottery will select the freshman class out of the pool of candidates.