] He was asked, "Colleges should get rid of legacy?"
]
] Bush responded, "Well I think so, yes. I think it ought
] to be based upon merit."
]
] Under legacy programs, applicants are given an advantage
] if their parents or grandparents attended the school.
] Bush, a third-generation graduate of Yale University,
] joked about his own legacy.
]
] "Well, in my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to
] follow the old man's footsteps," he said to laughter.

Legacy is one problem I am not too upset by. The recent practice of applying legacy-tracking to non-legacy "likely donor" candidates is more troubling. It was amazing how many people from Carleton that graduated with my sister were from parents who had graduated about the time as my father -- and I think in that environment, it was an asset. That's different than accepting people as if they were legacy because their family was wealthy and indicated high likelyhood of donating large sums and fundraising, as the WSJ reported places like Duke doing. And I'm not harping on this because my mom went to Duke but I was not legacy enough to go as well. I think I did better anyway, without legacies. And I think Bush is confident that what doesn't matter as much as legacy is power and prestige -- I don't believe he was legacy at HBS, but as the son of "Special Envoy to China"...