Are Legacy Admits Next?

Hey Wise Ones,

After a temporary abatement in Affirmative Action’s presence in the news cycle, college admissions have been thrust back in the spotlight with more of a family feel. Did you go to a top college and want your child to have a leg up going there too? You might not have that legacy bump any longer…

Read for more!

Michael & Stella

Legacy Admits at Harvard are already Under the Gun

• At the National Summit on Equal Opportunity in Higher Education., U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona suggested legacy and donor admissions preferences contradict the values of higher education institutions.

• The Education Department has already launched an investigation into whether Harvard’s use of donor and legacy preferences in its undergraduate admissions practices violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

• Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, informed schools of what changes will occur, “You will know when you hear from us.” Helpful…

Why It Matters:

• Student recruitment practices may be undergoing its greatest transformation in recent decades. But will schools actually change or just make a few visible changes and wait until the hubbub dies down?

• Schools are in limbo, not knowing when and how to make the necessary changes to become or remain compliant with the recent SCOTUS ruling against Harvard and UNC.

Dinner Table Debate:

• If the leader of an institution (such as a college or NGO) determines NOT to enforce a law, is it more appropriate to punish the leader or the organization?

Did You Know?

• In 2022, Harvard’s overall acceptance rate was 3.2%. The average admit rate was approximately 42% for donor-related applicants and 34% for legacies.

Florida bans TikTok in schools

• Florida BoE approved measures banning TikTok on all personal devices using school internet and those owned/provided by schools.

• The ruling also requires instruction on, “social, emotional, and physical effects of social media,” and requires schools to prevent students connecting to any social media while using school-issued computers.

Why It Matters:

• TikTok remains teens’ favorite social media platform, as adolescents spend more than an average of 3 hours per day on social media. (Check out Opal below if this is a challenge for your child!)

• A lawsuit from Maryland’s Howard County Public School System in June, for example, said TikTok and other social media are “addictive and dangerous” and have changed the way kids “think, feel, and behave.”

• Critics have claimed this is nothing but a thinly-veiled geopolitical maneuver to keep Chinese-owned Bytedance out of Florida. This could provide Republic Presidential Candidate Ron DeSantis with a much-needed talking point in upcoming Presidential Candidate debates.

Dinner Table Debate:

• Is banning or regulating social media use a more effective response to the issue?

Did You Know?

• Teens report spending $2,419 per year on TikTok! (n = 5,690)

High Schoolers Are Going Faster and Faster

• High schoolers now account for nearly 1 out of every 5 community college students nationwide in the USA, far exceeding the popularity of Advanced Placement courses. (~2MM vs. 1.1MM)

• Nearly 70% of dual enrolled students are in community colleges, with four-year colleges handling the remaining share.

Why It Matters:

• These numbers are up in a BIG way, as community colleges maintained about 250,000 dual enrollment students as recently as 25 years ago.

• Students appear to be taking the dual enrollment route because it’s actually easier to gain credits than by taking AP exams. Why? For course credit, you just need to pass, not achieve a 4 or 5 on the AP.

• Top-notch state universities, like UCLA or UC Berkeley, encourage students to take two years of courses at community colleges. If they receive top marks, students easily transfer into a top university. Is this a new ‘back door’ into top state schools?

Dinner Table Debate:

• If dual enrollment is easier than AP exams, is that a positive option for students? Or is it more like ‘gaming the system’?

Did You Know?

• Between 2008 and 2018, the number of AP exams taken nearly doubled, from 2.7MM to over 5MM exams annually.

Quick Reads:

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• NYC Schools move to computer-based tests

• The Importance of Recess

• Kenya’s first 100% online university opens this fall