In Response to:
Gemini; What is the percentage of legacy admissions at Duke University?
Answer: While the exact percentage is unknown, these points highlight that legacy applicants
make up a noticeable portion of admitted students at Duke.
Well, now, Harvard is about a reported 40%. Let’s assume they don’t report inflated numbers.
Duke at a ‘Noticeable’ portion must be at least 40%. So the conclusion is almost half the student
body is qualified because they are connected and wealthy, not because they are smart!
Goodness, is this part of the ‘Deep State’ they talk about?
OK, that makes a lot of sense; they would pick an egghead entertainer comic to deliver their
commencement speech. One in which someone provided accolades for him giving a speech
dumb ed down so that a 5th-grade reading level would understand it. That is what you have to
do when almost half of your student body does not qualify to be admitted to the university simply
because they do not have the required academic credentials. They legally bribed their way in.
Generational wealth. Are they part of the Deep State?
It all makes sense that you would have to dumb down the speech to a 5th-grade reading level.
That way, the graduates could continue to pay attention and understand. Let’s not forget that if
they legally bribed their way in, would the program not go further and see their graduate
assistants, teachers, and professors all fully understand that legacy students get at least
passing grades? Regardless of performance.
If these are to be the future leaders of our country, should they not be expected to understand
speeches given at a higher level than what an egghead comic would deliver at a fifth-grade
reading level?
If all the elite universities do this, would it not dilute the country’s intelligence over time? If they
ran for public office with Duke or Harvard on their resume to show they were smart when, in fact,
they were just average or worse. Rather than being smart, they were just wealthy and
connected. Perhaps they are part of the Deep State, so many fear?
We have probably had more than one President like that. LBJ said Jerry Ford was a nice guy
but played football too much without a helmet. You’re probably wrong if you think Ole Blue
doesn’t have legacy students. We know of @ least one President who did this. Locked up his
high school transcripts so nobody could see them. I guess he did not want to prove he was a
stable genius! We think he legally bribed his way into Penn State Wharton Ayn Rand Raw
Capitalist School of Bidness. If he had locked up his high school grades, surely he would have
done so at Penn State as well. I don’t know if he graduated or got a degree from Penn State or
High School. “Failure to disclose a material fact for a profit or avoidance of a loss is Fraud! I’m
sure he locked up those transcripts as well. Would that be a material fact for a profit or
avoidance of a loss? Is that part of the deep state? I have to think he did not do very well in the
accounting requirements. When he became President, he created an 8 trillion dollar deficit in the
National Debt! About 25% to 1/3 of the total US Debt. He did seem to learn marketing
excessively using embellishments and absolutes.
He did not learn about balanced budgets or how to be a real fiscal conservative. And now, we
might re-elect him to ultimately bankrupt the country!
Pick your bootstraps up, Jack! You had better hope your parents could afford designer boots to
do so. Let’s be honest; you don’t have to attend those half-baked graduation ceremonies. They
will mail you the degree, which you can hang on your wall. I have heard Jerry Seinfeld say he
did not like the kind of awards and trophies you just put on a shelf or hang on the wall. Is Jerry
Seinfeld part of the deep state? I’m not sure you can trust anyone that hung around that Crazy
Kramer Guy!
Compare that to Ken Burns’s commencement speech;
Gemini: “Brandeis University considers legacy status in their admissions process [Source 1].
Legacy applicants often have a significant advantage in admissions, especially at
selective schools.”
We don’t know the percentage, as Universities don’t want you to know. They fail to disclose what
percentage of applicants are underachievers and simply bribe their way in. Additionally, there is
no disclosure of whether they are treated like all the other students in the course competence
evaluation. Nonetheless, I believe Brandeis picked a much more meaningful commencement
speaker. One with a long history of accomplishments. More importantly, if you choose a great
commencement speaker, the speaker will not tell the students or the faculty everything they
would prefer to hear. I am not sure the egghead jester ever made a controversial statement
unless it was part of a joke. I would call it the Michael Jordan syndrome; ‘Republicans buy shoes
too’! Perhaps Republicans watch Kramer, too.
I can probably think of 1,000 better choices for a commencement speaker for a graduating
class. We are in an era where we have a monetary influence that is way too large on our
government. Burns warned grads the GOP wants to take over the government and turn it into a
fascist religious state in so many words. I just don’t think the 5th-grade speech by an egghead
comic would send them out with so much additional wisdom. If you think making a lot of money
is the only reason you go to college, then the egghead comic would be a good choice. Most of
what he did was through his connected network, creating a successful situation comedy TV
Show. Certainly not too much since. Unless you want to count the needless carbon print on our
air from talking in cars. Then Pop Tarts! My life path would have made a better commencement
speech. Perhaps not so much for a bunch of connected kids who have a privileged path to
overcoming obstacles and are already wealthy. He was better at his situation comedy than
stand-up.
Tom Flash