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Notre Dame and Baylor Admit The Most Children of Alumni

By William Vogeler, Esq. on April 01, 2019 | Last updated on April 04, 2019

A couple of weeks ago, it would not have been a big deal for a university to admit more children of alumni than any other university.

But these are scandalous times, and now it is news because of the bribery scam that has rocked American colleges. Yet, haven't privileged people always been able to buy their way into top schools?

That may not be the story at places like the University of Notre Dame. For some reason, however, Notre Dame leads the elite in admitting the most legacy applicants.

Elite Admissions

Citing its own records, Notre Dame says 22 percent of its students are children of alumni. Bloomberg also did the math among universities with the 25 biggest endowments.

Outside the top 25, Baylor University leads with 32 percent of its students. It is a bigger percentage than Harvard or Yale, where privileged admissions is a legacy.

Harvard's admission rate for legacy applicants was "over five times that of non-legacy students," the Harvard Crimson recently reported. It is hard to know whether such schools are taking in students for bribes, but admission practices are certainly newsworthy since the scandal broke.

The Atlantic thought it was worth a historical review. The conclusion: Elite-College Admissions Were Built to Protect Privilege.

Protect Privilege

Selective schools have opened their doors to more diverse students since the early 20th century, the Atlantic says, but they purposely implemented polices to favor wealthy white students.

"Those students have always enjoyed disproportionate access to elite colleges in the U.S.," wrote Annika Neklason. "They were meant to."

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