Hardvard's Admission Policies

Harvard's admission policies have changed from decade to decade. In 1905, Harvard adopted the college entrance examination board tests. This policy basically allowed any student with good grades to attend Harvard. This seems to be a fair policy, but the policies Harvard implemented later on may seem questionable. For example, now Harvard has a policy that requires every student who applies for admission to send their picture along with everything else. Why would they require such a thing? My guess is because they care about the student's physical appearance.

Many ivy-league colleges are famous for being more supportive to legacy students. Legacy students are the students whose parents already attended that specific college. So if John's father went to Harvard and graduated, then John would not have a hard time getting into Harvard even though he might have lacked some requirements. This might seem unfair to other students but these are Harvard's policies. They only admit the students who they 'think' will be successful in future. John's father went to Harvard and graduated, therefore they make an assumption that John will graduate as well just like his father and be successful.

It is fair to criticize Harvard's admission policies because I don't believe they are justified. If a student has the academic level that Harvard requires and is willing to pay huge sums of money to get an education, then he or she should get an equal opportunity to do just that. Harvard is like any other business company, but it does not treat all its 'customers' equally. Harvard should be concerned about a person's talents, not his/her physical appearance. A person can always learn and discover a talent that he or she has, but physical appearance is something that a person is born with due to nature and genetics.