The image above shows the percentage of new freshmen at various elite institutions who were legacy admissions in the 1983-84 school year, “legacy” meaning that one or both parents, a grandparent, or another immediate family member had once attended that same school. Anywhere between forty and ninety percent of these schools’ new students were seated because of reservations their parents had made at the club twenty-five and thirty years earlier. And those parents there because of their own parents’ affiliation as well. It’s a multi-generational distillation process that ensures that those inside remain inside, those outside forever out.
(Interesting that this data was published knowledge in 1984, and closely held business secrets now. Come on, y’all, show us the numbers. Don’t be ashamed of the things you do on purpose.)
As Stanford’s David Labaree wrote in his book A Perfect Mess, American higher education has stratification infused fully through it. The wealthiest schools that give the greatest life advantages preserve those advantages only for their own. It’s WASPy, and it’s persistent.
Herb Childress 