I'll let you know how it goes for middle kid this year. Her legacy connection college isn't elite, but well known and fairly highly ranked. Mom, dad, aunt and uncle all attended the school, and the school heavily considers legacy. She is also above the 75th percentile test scores. So what if they let her in and that is in part due to her connections? I assure you it will not be because of a seven figure donation.
Colleges benefit from tax breaks (deductions for donationa, tax exemptions for endowment investment income) and subsidies (Pell grants, guaranteed student loans). It could be argued that government-subsidized institutions should not be nepotistic, but that ideal is often not met. There are foundations and churches that give jobs to relatives of the founder.
I would not mind if my alma mater abolished legacy preferences, but I am not outraged by them, because trying to benefit one's offspring, even as adults, is natural and common. Small business owners commonly employ their children and pass on their businesses to them. Is that bad? Two of our three children have expressed interest in becoming doctors, like their mother. She says she wants to pay for not just college but medical school, because she did not leave medical school with debt in her country (where the path to becoming a doctor is shorter). They will be "privileged" over students with several hundred thousand dollars in college and medical school loans. Should parents with the means to do so not help adult children?
