Rejected Legacies

To the Editors:

Andrew Hacker writes: “It seems to me that someone who applies to and is rejected by a parent’s alma mater is not that likely to be accepted by another high-status college where he or she doesn’t have a legacy advantage” [NYR, Letters, April 6]. Doesn’t seem so to me. I am a Harvard graduate with four children. Three applied to Harvard. One was accepted and attended. The other two, rejected by Harvard, went respectively to Dartmouth and Stanford.

Martin Mayer

Shelter Island, New York

Andrew Hacker replies:

As a longtime admirer of Martin Mayer and his work, I was pleased to see his family’s statistics. If more figures like his come to my attention, I will be happy to revise my thinking about rejected legacies.