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I absolutely care if they were legacy because it means I'm not seeing a different Harvard grad who might have been less rich and more able.
by TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
I absolutely care if they were legacy because it means I'm not seeing a different Harvard grad who might have been less rich and more able.
- lordnacho 3y agoSo do you ask them about it? Is it normal to reveal on one's CV? I would guess not.
- chii 3y ago> who might have been less rich and more able. but why would someone being less rich also imply they're more able? And why would someone richer not be capable just as much? It's just another form of discrimination - except that it feels justified, because it came from the axiom that legacy admissions must be worse for merit.
- lordnacho 3y agoBerkson's Paradox would be one potential reason. Say you have some criteria like "potential future donor" and "really smart". They might not be connected in the general population, but when you select on the total donor+smart, such that only people with a high combined score are admitted, you get a correlation among the admitted population. It's not hard to see why: either you have loads of money and thus only need a little smarts, or you have lots of smart and need minimal money.
- Timon3 3y ago> but why would someone being less rich also imply they're more able? And why would someone richer not be capable just as much? The less rich person must be able to get in. The more rich person doesn't have to be able to get in. This means that the average rich person that got in is less able than the average less-rich person. Where do you disagree with this logic?