Stanford has been under pressure from student groups to end legacy admissions on its campus, when the decision was made for them. A new bill passed by California bans preferences for both legacy students and the children of donors at private nonprofit universities in the state. As public schools in California already do not use legacy status in admissions decisions, this marks a major turn away from the practice.
Of course, California is just one state, but this isn’t the first bill proposed or passed to limit the use of legacy status in admissions. But why is this happening? Will this significantly alter the admissions landscape? And what does all of this mean for your chances of admission?
What is Legacy Admissions Anyway?
Before we talk about why it might be ending, let’s figure out what legacy admissions actually entails. To sum up, legacy admissions is a practice where the children of alumni at a university get a boost in their admissions chances. The way this works in practice is that a specific tag is added to their profile, and they get reviewed an additional time or two, especially as a university is rounding out their class.
This doesn’t mean a legacy student will definitely be admitted over a non-legacy, but that they will be given an extra chance, an extra review, and in admissions, that matters. Legacy students are two to four times more likely to be admitted than their non-legacy peers at top colleges.
Legacy status is not the only “tag” of this sort which can be applied to an application. Others include having parents who are major donors to the university, being a recruited athlete, being the child of a faculty member, and, until recently, minority status. The Supreme Court ended the last tag with their decision to end affirmative action (which we cover in more detail here), which in turn brought increased attention to the remaining factors which some believe unfairly boost admissions chances.
The ones receiving the most attention in this push are legacy and donor relations, as they are the most visible, and perceived to be the least fair. The children of faculty are few enough, and faculty influential enough, that their preference is likely to remain. As for athletes, the place sports should have in college is a subject for another article, but at the moment, nothing is going to stop colleges from recruiting top athletes.
Will This Alter the Admissions Landscape?
To answer this question, we must first look at who is actually ending the use of legacy admissions.
This is a motley collection, because these changes are being enacted by two distinct groups. First, some schools are voluntarily ending the consideration of legacy status in admissions. Next, some states are disallowing legacy considerations generally in admissions. Aside from California however, all other bills passed thus far are limited to determining admissions practice of public schools. Nobody else has tried to meddle with private schools -yet.
Because of this patchwork approach, there are unlikely to be systemic changes to how admissions functions. It would require a much broader push than what has previously occurred, and with a wider focus.
The primary reason for this is that most top schools understand the issues with legacy admissions, but are unwilling to give them up. The perk given to legacy students is seen as a key alumni benefit, and many schools worry that alumni giving could be seriously negatively impacted should they end the practice. This is despite peer schools having done so without harm, notably Johns Hopkins.
Many states are also loath to regulate the admissions policies of private colleges; Massachusetts, for example, has had a proposed bill that would ban the practice stall for a significant period of time. Many of the private colleges in the state, including Harvard, oppose the bill, and the power of their lobbying efforts should not be overlooked.
While there may be small and local changes to admissions chances, this trend is unlikely to alter admissions as a whole unless new and sweeping changes occur nationally, or several individual states act in concert.
Does Legacy Admissions Impact You?
This depends on two important factors:
- Whether you qualify for legacy admissions
- Where you want to apply to college
The first consideration is whether you qualify for legacy admissions; if and where your parents attended university, and whether that school employs the practice. Note that most schools only consider parents for legacy admissions; while you can list other relatives who have attended the school, these generally will not impact admissions.
If you do have legacy status, then you should consider applying to that school, especially if it one you would otherwise enjoy. The admissions boost from this status is even more than the one offered by applying early decision; while it does not guarantee you acceptance, it gives a significant boost to your chances, one you should consider taking advantage of.
If you do not have legacy status, then this may impact where you choose to apply to college. After all, a top college which does not consider legacy admissions, like Johns Hopkins or Stanford, might now be a better chance for you. The lack of legacy consideration does not mean you will now get in if you previously would not, but instead that applicants now have a more level playing field.
This can have an impact, especially at schools where legacy applicants make up a significant portion of the incoming class. We can use Harvard as an example, as they were forced to reveal swaths of admissions data for their last lawsuit. Around 20% of their class was legacy students; which is a lot.
We do want to point out that all legacy students admitted to Harvard or other schools are still qualified, but that does raise the question as to how qualified they are compared to non-legacy students, and whether they would still be getting in at the same rates without the preference.
For your own applications, if you do not receive legacy preference at any schools, then you may consider applying to a college which does not consider legacy status at all as your top choice. It may be a small improvement in the odds, but those do still matter.
Who Considers Legacy Status?
To help you understand how this might impact your applications, here is a list of the top 25 ranked colleges (in alphabetical order), and whether or not they consider legacy status of applicants.
| College Name | Considers Legacy? | Notes |
| Brown | Yes | One parent must be an undergrad alum to qualify |
| Caltech | No | |
| Carnegie Mellon | No | |
| Columbia | Yes | One parent must be an undergraduate alum to qualify |
| Cornell | Yes | Around 15% of incoming students are legacies |
| Dartmouth | Yes | Legacy applicants approximately 2x as likely to be accepted |
| Duke | Yes | Children and grandchildren of alumni are considered |
| Emory | Yes | Grandparents, parents, and siblings are considered |
| Georgetown | Yes | Grandparents and parents are considered |
| Harvard | Yes | Parent must have graduated from Harvard |
| Johns Hopkins | No | |
| MIT | No | |
| Notre Dame | Yes | Up to 25% of each class is legacy students |
| Northwestern | Yes | Parents, siblings, and grandparents are considered for legacy status |
| Princeton | Yes | Parent or stepparent must have attended Princeton |
| Rice | Yes | |
| Stanford | No | This is due to the recent California legislation |
| UC Berkeley | No | |
| UCLA | No | |
| UChicago | Yes | Consider both parental and secondary legacy status, but parental is preferred |
| University of Michigan | No | |
| UPenn | Yes | Considers both children and grandchildren of alumni |
| University of Virginia | Yes* | It’s not a checkbox but an optional essay. Family connections are considered, as are descendents of slaves who built the school |
| Vanderbilt | Yes | Around 15% of incoming students are legacies |
| Washington University in St Louis | Yes | Considers both children and grandchildren of alumni |
| Yale | Yes | Approximately 12% of the student body is legacy students |
A Note on Donor Admissions
Most of this article, and the news generally, has focused on legacy applicants, but they are not the only group targeted by these bills. A less looked at secondary focus is that of the admissions perk given to the children of major donors. This is a much smaller group of students, but still worth discussing briefly.
Universities are nonprofit organizations, but still require funding to operate. This comes from many sources, but they especially prize donations. Major donors to universities are given certain perks; their name on buildings, getting feted at special dinners and events, and their children given additional consideration in the admissions process.
This is not a true quid pro quo; you can’t just show up with a bag of cash and have your child get into Yale. It is however a thumb on the scale, these students get the same extra consideration given to other tagged students, or even more, and get in at a much higher rate than the general applicant pool. The cost to do so is high of course, but many parents believe this is worth it.
It makes sense why universities do this, and also why people without the same level of resources feel like this situation is unfair. While the situation is different from legacy admissions, their comparisons generally and in bills such as the ones we’ve seen in California and Massachusetts makes sense. We anticipate seeing more bans on donor preference in admissions alongside legacy preference.
Final Thoughts
College admissions isn’t fair. It’s entirely possible it never will be, nor is it entirely clear if we want perfectly fair admissions, or even what those would look like. We understand the push for fairness however, and this latest drive against legacy admissions is the newest manifestation of it. While we don’t know where it will end up, we will keep you updated on every change that comes your way.
We hope this article has updated you on the current state of legacy admissions, and how these policies can and should impact your own admissions strategy. Of course, monitoring the policies of dozens of colleges is a lot to ask of high school students, who are already dealing with the stress of both coursework and college applications. Ivy Scholars is here to help you bridge the gap. We help students find the right schools for them, and map out the best possible strategies to get them there. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you.
