One More Time - Fallacies

One More Time

1. What’s the issue at hand* (question at issue)*?

The issue at hand is if the children of alumni should have an easier time getting into Cromwell than other applicants.

2. Is it significant?

It would be significant to me if I were a graduate and my child was applying to the university.

The claims being made are 1) they are most likely to do well, 2) understand what the college is about, 3) know the old traditions, 4) stronger feeling of school pride, 5) feel committed to Cromwell because of their family connection, 6) won’t do anything to jeopardize their success there and 7) and probably have a higher retention rates because legacies won’t transfer to another school.

Most of the claims listed above are not necessarily true and they seem to be just opinions. One would think that these claims should be true but not all children seem to grasp the importance of a college education if their parents went to school there or not. They may be forced to go there because it’s a family tradition and will rebel against all activities, school work and whatever else Cromwell has to offer in order to get their way. This will jeopardize their enrollment and will end up dropping out or transferring to another school. Then there’s those that truly want to be there that have the school pride and attitude to succeed due to the family tradition.

A research study showed that in their first 2 years after graduation, 78% of legacies donated a total of $100 or more versus 36% of non-legacy graduates.

I do believe the evidence at hand is credible as long as the sources have access to the correct information to run these studies.

4. How credible is the speaker as well as the sources cited?

The speaker is a child of a Cromwell alumnus, which I do not believe gives her the authority to make such claims without offering more evidence. It seems because she is following her family tradition she would have a more biased opinion towards the issue with a...