Well if your parents went to Harvard then they had money to pay for Harvard. And they probably have money to pay for their children.

Harvard and similar universities are all about “donations” to the school, so yeah. It’s definitely an assumption of generational wealth.

You are making some assumptions about what Harvard is attempting to do when filling its classes. If its goal is to have a class full of people who did the most with what they had you have an argument. If their goal is to maximize alumni support (financial and otherwise) then maybe not

What you need to know about Harvard is that they are a business. Their business is to amass donations from alumni and the likes. Their endowment fund is currently over $50 billions.

Rich and successful alumni means more donations, so it makes sense to take in the kids of rich and successful people.

Harvard tries to be a pretty progressive organization - the way they justify legacy admissions is probably by arguing that the large endowments let them fund underprivileged students with needs-based programs.

They’re also in the literal business of prestige. They use mega-donors for mega-endowments which allows them to attract and fund mega-researchers. It’s also why it needs to be super exclusive (small class sizes).