Affirming legitimacy of legacy admissions

The recent editorial calling for the Duke admissions office to discontinue the consideration of applicants’ legacy status failed to include a few critical points of consideration. As a fourth-generation legacy student, I am proud of my Duke heritage as most people are of their family’s traditions and accomplishments. However, it is sometimes impossible to ignore the idea that I was accepted to Duke on the basis of my bloodline rather than my hard work. I have often chosen not to disclose my legacy status to other students out of fear of undermining my intelligence and abilities. Yet it is time for me, and other students with similar situations, to abandon this concern. The admissions process is already so subjective that is unfair to claim that legacy students take the place of other, more qualified students. Unless the admissions process becomes completely objective, based solely on numbers and test scores, the arguments about any “outside factors” including legacy, minority status, geography, unique talents and family background are moot. Instead of critiquing a single aspect of a process that perhaps needs a complete reevaluation, all students should realize that we have too much to stress about at Duke to have to prove that we deserve to be here all over again.

Christine Delp, Trinity ’15