Unsought Input

We’ve written before about why schools continue the practice of favoring legacy admissions - accepting the sons and daughters of wealthy alumni.

Now there is some empirical evidence of the economics that drive this practice. Slate Magazine recently ran an article about the puzzle of charitable giving in economics - if markets are driven by individuals rationally pursuing their own best interest, where does charity come from?

A new study by Jonathan Meer of Stanford and Harvey S. Rosen of Princeton shows that when it comes to donations to one’s alma mater, charity isn’t altruism. Alumni with kids are 13 percent more likely to donate, and they are more and more likely to donate as their kid reaches age 14. At that point there’s a big split - for those parents who’s kids go on to apply to the school, donations continue to increase. The parents whose kids do not apply to the alma mater drop off giving.

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Inside Higher Ed recently ran an article reviewing Daniel Golden’s new book, The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges - and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates. Golden exposes the secret world of rich kid admits and the “sinister” pecuniary motives that drive such admissions. It is no secret that the parents of rich applicants have the capacity to donate a lot of money to a university. It is also no surprise that this process offends the sensibilities of most people, overturning the notions of meritocracy and diversity that supposedly drive the admissions process. It strikes one as manifestly unfair that a high school graduate can be accepted to an Ivy League university based not on their grade point average or test scores, but on the amount of money sitting in their parent’s coffers. But, while this is unfair, it is also desirable.
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