Legacy Students A Counterpoint to Affirmative Action
washingtonpost.com
By Amy Argetsinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 12, 2003; Page A06
Davin Fischer sensed he had been given a special break when Georgetown University admitted him two years ago. His high school record was strong but perhaps not as stellar as those of some of his future classmates, a fact that sat uneasily with him in the months before he came to campus. "I wondered, 'Do I belong there?' " recalled the 19-year-old sophomore from Milwaukee.
Today, though, Fischer is thriving in his classes at the District's most elite learning institution and has a new outlook about the circumstances that brought him there. "It's not how you receive the opportunity, it's what you make of it," he said. "I'm not lighting Georgetown on fire academically, but I'm holding my own and getting a lot out of it." It could be the angstful cry of an affirmative action beneficiary. Except that Fischer is white.
The asset that got him special consideration at Georgetown was his father's diploma from the same school. The preferences that competitive colleges give to "legacy" applicants such as Fisher have emerged as a surprising counterpoint in the heated debate over affirmative action. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a presidential candidate, recently called for an end to legacy preferences, which he decried as a throwback to "18th-century British aristocracy." The issues resonate politically, if not legally.
The state universities of Georgia and California both dropped their legacy preferences after they were forced -- Georgia by a court ruling, California by referendum -- to end affirmative action admissions. Colleges are open about their reasons for legacy admits -- they bolster alumni loyalty and, not insignificantly, alumni donations.
"It seems reasonable, as a tip factor in a close call, that it's in everybody's best interests that colleges show some exceptions for alumni children," said Charles Deacon, Georgetown's dean of undergraduate admissions. He often tells freshmen that they have joined "a community for life," he said. Their families, then, "leave with certain expectations." While minorities are admitted to Georgetown at a higher rate than the total applicant pool -- about 28 percent compared with 21 percent of all applicants -- the proportion of legacy applicants admitted is higher still, at 40 to 42 percent, Deacon said.
The numbers are similar or somewhat higher at many elite schools. Legacy students are about twice as likely to get into the University of Virginia, more than three times as likely to get into Harvard.
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