THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, June 6, 1995                  TAG: 9506010528
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 
SERIES: Affirmative Action
        Part three: Education
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

ATHLETES, CHILDREN OF ALUMNI OFTEN GET GOOD DEALS

Minorities aren't the only ones who get breaks in admissions, say university officials and proponents of affirmative action.

To get a mixed student body - and keep donors happy - schools also offer preferences to children of alumni, athletes, sometimes even musicians. So who gets the best deal?

At most schools, blacks generally have lower acceptance rates than athletes or children of alumni, also known as legacies. At Virginia Tech, it's 56 percent for blacks and 82 to 83 percent for the other two categories.

But in other respects, blacks still have a leg up on legacies.

At the University of Virginia, out-of-state blacks and out-of-state legacies enjoy the same advantage: They get moved from the out-of-state pile of applications to the Virginia pile, greatly increasing their odds of getting in.

But out-of-state legacies get almost no further preferences, says admissions dean John A. Blackburn. Blacks from outside Virginia still may get special consideration, to compensate for a lower-than-average SAT score or a grade point average that is slightly less than that of a white applicant.

At most schools, legacies who are admitted generally have better high school grades and SAT averages than blacks. At the College of William and Mary, for instance, the legacies' average class rank percentile is 6 points higher than blacks', and 2.5 lower than whites'.

On the other hand, athletes, as a group, get a slightly easier ride than blacks. Their SAT scores are roughly the same as blacks', but their class rank usually is a bit lower. The difference is dramatic at U.Va. There, the class rank of athletes is 16 percentage points lower than blacks', placing them barely in the top third of their high school class.

``Whether they are minority or majority students, we've taken a few risks on students recruited for revenue programs,'' U.Va.'s admissions dean, John A. Blackburn, says of the athletes. ``But we believe we're picking kids who are motivated and will succeed.''

Eastern Virginia Medical School also has a range of preferences that extend beyond race. In its 40-point system, applicants get a point for being a minority, another for living in Virginia, another for living in Hampton Roads. So a white male from Norfolk would start off with more points than a black from Maryland. MEMO: Main story on page A1. by CNB