CHILDREN OF ALUMNI SHOULD GET PREFERENCE IN ADMISSIONS

BELOW is THE second of a series of debates that we the editor have had with ourselfhere at the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. We seem to have two minds about almost everything; both of them are struggling to keep the debate impersonal.

DARTMOUTH'S policy of giving a small boost to alumni "legacies" is one tradition that should not fail.Over the past few years, a legacy's chances of admission have been about 50-50, compared to about one in five for the general population. This does not mean that the College is sneaking in underqualified candidates; the children of alumni often count among the brightest and most accomplished of the applicant pool.

Our distinguished alter ego in the argument below will nonetheless make the case that admitting legacies is a selfish act on the part of the institution. We will readily admit that enrolling qualified children of alumni is good for Dart mouth. It aids fundraising helping make it possible, incidentally, to admit the less-wealthy. Some scandal.

What is wrong, at any rate, with admitting qualified applicants who will make the College stronger? Dartmouth recruits athletes, student leaders, racial minorities, and people from far-flung places with the same rationale: to make Dartmouth educationally richer. Why not include alumni as one of those groups?

These students will bring to the campus an unrivalled institutional memory, a knowledge of the history and traditions that make Dartmouth great.

They will have a well-informed love of the place that has been passed down from a generation or more. And as such they are among Dartmouth's greatest treasures, a true legacy.

Dartmouth's administrators, thank goodness, show no desire to change this well-proven policy. They are wise to stay the course.