[conservatism_IS_compassion]

This statistic could prove very misleading if the average SAT scores against which the lagatees are compared includes the scores of black admitees.

I was thinking the same way. You have to control for race and sex when evaluating the effect of legacy. And I suppose you should control for legacy and sex when evaluating the effect of race--but that would tend to make the effect of race stronger if the legacy and sex bring the average white SAT down.

But if you reflect on it, the proportion of black students will be on the order of 10% if that's the proportion in the general population--and if legacy admittees are also only 10%, the effect of a 200 point SAT gap in blacks would be about 20 points lower overall average score, a little higher if you control for race when evaluating legacy. But 20 points is after all not insignificant--it's apparently bigger than the male-female or the legacy gap would be.

[Labyrinthos]

The bottom line is that I wouldn't get myself in a tizzy over the article or use it to support one position or the other because we simply don't have enough info to draw an intelligent conclusion.