Scott Alexander has an interesting take on legacy admissions[1]: the idea is to admit some privileged kids, and some smart kids, so that each can benefit from the other's presence. In other words, if you're a smart kid trying to pick a college, the fact that at Harvard you can become drinking buddies with the kids of industry tycoons, federal judges, senators, etc. is exactly what you want. You're not upset that those privileged kids get in automatically, it's actually a perk to you that they do.

[1] https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-match-school-and-s...