[rueynshard]

I doubt it would make much of a dent in their reputation. It is already widely perceived (whether true or not) that children of important donors, legacies and other groups get preferential treatment.

[smsm42]

It may be worse than that. E.g. the claims in the Asian-American applicants' lawsuit may be proven right: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/harvard-asian-admissio... and there might be other things like that that are generally frowned upon.

[thisisit]

IMO, perceiving and have hard data are two different things. If it was proven by data then they might have to give way to all kinds of lawsuits. Without data they can steadfastly claim to be neutral even if they are perceived otherwise.

[csa]

Legacy and donors do get preferential treatment, but almost all of them are fairly strong academically (not as strong the top 30% or so of the class, but still strong). There are very few people who are unqualified but still get in due to legacy or donor status (cough Kushner cough).