The Biden administration has opened an investigation into Harvard’s use of legacy admissions policies granting preference to relatives of alumni, the federal Education Department confirmed Tuesday.
The investigation, by the department’s Office for Civil Rights, follows a complaint filed by several nonprofit groups who asked for a look into Harvard’s use of the practice earlier this month.
“Each year, Harvard College grants special preference in its admissions process to hundreds of mostly white students – not because of anything they have accomplished, but rather solely because of who their relatives are,” says the complaint, which was filed just days after the Supreme Court banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
Harvard University’s practice of granting preferences to family members of large donors effectively gives white applicants a leg up, the complaint says, and, “as a direct result, excludes non-white applicants,” a violation of federal civil rights law.
Harvard confirmed it was notified of the investigation. The Education Department declined to comment on the inquiry beyond confirming it had opened an investigation.
The nonprofit groups that filed the complaint earlier this month welcomed the development.
“When you have policies like this one, where they’re already automatically being held out of the equation because how this really serves predominantly white students … this is really sending the wrong message,” said Zaida Ismatul Oliva, executive director of the Chica Project. Her group works with young people of color to close what it calls the “opportunity divide” that can leave some groups with limited access to education, financial stability, social capital and political power.
“We think that this is really unfair,” she said.
In addition to her organization, the groups behind the complaint are the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network.
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New research: Elite college attendance linked to high earnings
The United States’ top leaders tend to have several things in common: a diploma from one of the country’s most selective private colleges, including Harvard, and a wealthy upbringing.
New research out this week suggests that’s not a coincidence.
A working paper released this week by a group of prominent economists who examine inequities in society found children from the top 1% of the income distribution are twice as likely as their middle-class counterparts with comparable test scores to attend an Ivy League or similarly exclusive institution.
Graduates of these schools – some of whom have a leg up in the admissions process because they are the descendants of prior graduates – are in turn far more likely to end up working in prestigious firms, contributing to the country’s stubborn income gaps.
Elite colleges, the researchers conclude, “amplify the persistence of privilege across generations.” Changes to the way these institutions approach admissions, they say, could significantly help diversify the ranks of the country’s top earners.
Harvard said it is in the midst of analyzing its admissions policies “to assure compliance with the law and to carry forward Harvard’s longstanding commitment to welcoming students of extraordinary talent and promise who come from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences,” the institution said in a statement. “As this work continues, and moving forward, Harvard remains dedicated to opening doors to opportunity and to redoubling our efforts to encourage students from many different backgrounds to apply for admission.”
Complaint targets legacy admissionsfollowing Supreme Court’s rejection of affirmative action
Key takeaways
The research group, called Opportunity Insights, analyzed a massive body of federal college enrollment and income tax data between 1999 and 2015, comparing it with test score statistics over a similar time period. It focused on the eight Ivy League institutions as well as Stanford, Duke, MIT and the University of Chicago, each of which admits fewer than 7% of applicants.
The economists – Harvard’s Raj Chetty and David J. Deming and Brown’s John Friedman – gained unprecedented access to admissions evaluations from some of the schools, which provided the information on the condition of anonymity. They were then able to analyze the differences in admissions decisions for waitlisted applicants.
They found:
- Attending one of these uber-elite schools (versus the average highly selective public flagship university) increases a student’s chances of reaching the top 1% by 60%;
- Nearly doubles their odds of going to an elite graduate school; and
- And triples their chances of working at a prestigious firm.
Why do wealthy students get such a boost?
While the Supreme Court recently outlawed the consideration of race in admissions, advocates point to all the other factors that colleges take into account when evaluating applicants. Many of these preferential practices explain the boost rich students receive when applying to the so-called Ivy-Plus schools.
Specifically, the economists found these three factors drive rich students’ admissions advantage:
- Preferences for the children of alumni, also known as legacy students;
- The weight given to students’ non-academic ratings, which tend to be higher at tuition-charging, private high schools; and
- The recruitment of athletes, whose household incomes tend to be on the higher side.
The court’s ruling has triggered some immediate changes to legacy admissions practices. Last week, for instance, Wesleyan University said it would abandon the practice.
