41.2% of the freshman class at Harvard is legacy. pic.twitter.com/iqYBltT5dO
— James S. Murphy (@James_S_Murphy) September 1, 2017
Our elite pundits obsess about elite schools (thinking they are the only ones) and somehow rarely bother to discuss this. Basically they think the mostly white legacy students are qualified and any minority affirmative action students (And affirmative action *barely exists* anywhere so they're obsessing about nothing) needed bonus points.
...on the twitter I already got the "well maybe their grades made them the most qualified students!" kind of responses. That just isn't how admissions works (and with 41% of students they sort of define the distribution). But even if they were "as qualified" in some sense, they still got a bit of a boost to comparable students. Who your parents are matters in an obvious and clear way that is undeniable, and mostly doesn't even require that they buy a library for the college.