Harvard is a very, very selective school. Only 3.43% of applicants get in. But that's not the whole story. Writing in The Guardian, Tayo Bero says that 43% of the white student body was admitted on criteria other than merit.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/17/harvard-university-students-smart-iq
Those 43% are ALDCs: athletes, legacies, dean's interest list (children of major donors) or children (of Harvard faculty). Three quarters of ALDCs do not have the grades to be admitted to Harvard on their own merit.
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I don't get it, I thought that's how paid-for schools were overtly designed to work ?
Also the article doesn't say how far from the bar that applies to other students are ALDCs ?
And, once admitted in school, does one get degrees also for free ? I thought that one had to get good grades to pass, and that in a competitive environment like Harvard that wasn't that easy ?
70% of Harvard legacies are white. 16% of ALDCs are Black, Asian or Hispanic.
As Bero writes, you don't need Varsity Blues-style bribery to get your underachieving white kids into a top university. There's a huge affirmative action program in place to get those ALDCs into super-competitive schools, rather than better-qualified brown and poor kids.
eof/