In addition, in those four Yale medical school classes, legacy admissions (which grant preferential treatment to the children of alumni) are estimated to be roughly 11–12% of the cohort (approx. 45–50 students). This group is predominantly White and highly affluent, with 34% hailing from the top 1% of income earners. The reason these conversations— which are supposedly about bringing back MERIT-based admissions—never bother about legacy admissions, which inherently function as a form of AFFIRMATIVE action for the ultra affluent, is because the debate is less about safeguarding an objective standard of merit and more about maintaining existing racial and class hierarchies.