[naveen99]

They should just increase the price of admission for non merit based spots. but the universities want to take the money as a “donation” instead of cost of goods, so the parents can save on taxes as well and donate twice as much. maybe tuition should be tax deductible for everyone instead.

[mochomocha]

No they shouldn't: anything that's "pay for play" is morally bankrupt. It reinforces the stigma that there are different rules for the rich in this country.

Bribery of congressmen (a.k.a lobbying) or university deans (ALDC admissions) are forms of legal corruptions. You might argue that a private institution can do whatever it wants, and I agree. But in this case it should get 0 tax benefits/subsidies, esp. when they have $B+ endowments.

[balderdash]

They basically already do. It’s called people that pay full tuition (and subsidize people that don’t - full usually doesn’t mean cost, it means cost+). Private universities are typically only using legacy status to add a slight advantage to candidates that are in the paying full freight pool (I.e. they’re not giving a spot to a below average legacy candidate that needs financial aid)

[tnecniv]

They certainly give away a few of those spots, but the price is a significant donation that will cover more than one student who needs financial aid, and the Ivies give very generous aid to those that need it. I know more than one person that chose an Ivy because they got significantly more aid than from other elite schools to which they were accepted.

[naveen99]

Full tuition is still merit based admission in theory. I mean there should be a quoted price for completely merit blind admissions.

[theGnuMe]

They accept Federal research dollars so they should be governed by federal admission guidelines and standards.