States get bolder about banning legacy admissions. What does that mean for equity?

|
Reed Saxon/AP/File
The University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, is one of the private, nonprofit California schools affected by the state's new ban on legacy admissions.
  • Quick Read
  • Deep Read ( 5 Min. )

At the end of September, California became the fifth and largest state to ban legacy admissions at colleges and universities. Public institutions in the state had dropped the practice decades earlier. The new law bars it at private, nonprofit schools.

The push to ban legacy admissions became more public after the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that did away with affirmative action, deeming it unconstitutional to consider race in admissions.

Why We Wrote This

In legislatures and on college campuses across the U.S., the issue of legacy admissions is heating up. California is the latest state to ban the practice – adding more fuel to a nationwide debate about how to create an even playing field for applicants.

Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia have also enacted bans this year, joining Colorado, which did so in 2021. Maryland became the first to include private schools. More states are considering taking action, and members of Congress have also embraced the idea.

For some institutions, it could mean the loss of a consistent revenue source, and, some argue, an important part of school culture and community. But opponents say the recent laws go a long way to support equal access to education.

“This is terrific news,” says James Murphy, at the nonprofit Education Reform Now. “Not only because it’s California and that’s a big and influential state, but also because it’s only the second state to abandon legacies in private universities.”

Should college applicants get preferential treatment if they are related to wealthy alumni or donors?

States are increasingly saying “No,” with California being the fifth and largest to do so, on Sept. 30. Public schools in that state had dropped the practice decades earlier. The new law bars it at private, nonprofit colleges and universities.

The Golden State joins Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Colorado, all of which have done away with legacy admissions at either all schools or at public institutions. Massachusetts and other states are considering similar action – and members of Congress have also embraced the idea. For some institutions, it could mean the loss of a consistent revenue source, and, some argue, an important part of school culture and community. But opponents say the recent laws go a long way to support equal access to education.

Why We Wrote This

In legislatures and on college campuses across the U.S., the issue of legacy admissions is heating up. California is the latest state to ban the practice – adding more fuel to a nationwide debate about how to create an even playing field for applicants.

“This is terrific news,” says James Murphy, director of career pathways and post-secondary policy at the nonprofit Education Reform Now. “Not only because it’s California and that’s a big and influential state, but also because it’s only the second state to abandon legacies in private universities.”

What’s driving states to ban legacy admissions?

The push to ban legacy admissions became more public after the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that did away with affirmative action, deeming it unconstitutional to consider race in admissions. In that decision, the high court also commented on other practices. Legacy admissions “while race-neutral on their face,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch in his concurring opinion, ”undoubtedly benefit white and wealthy applicants the most.”

Steve Helber/AP/File
Virginia state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, seen here speaking to supporters in 2023, sponsored a Senate bill banning public universities from using legacy admissions. It was signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in March 2024.

State bans are fairly recent. Colorado was the first to bar legacy admissions, at public schools, in 2021. Earlier this year, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore made his state the first to include private, nonprofit colleges and universities – as well as their public counterparts – in a ban. This year, Illinois and Virginia also passed laws banning legacy admissions at public institutions.

After the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, advocacy groups filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education asking for an investigation into legacy admissions at schools like Harvard. The University of Pennsylvania is currently being investigated after a separate complaint. A 2019 study showed that 43% of white students admitted to Harvard were legacies, athletes, or children of parents or relatives who donated to the university. It also showed that 70% of the school’s legacy students were white.

“As the organization that filed the federal civil rights complaint against Harvard University for its discriminatory legacy and donor preferences, we applaud California’s move. And we ask: Why is Massachusetts lagging behind on this critical civil rights issue?” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director at Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, in a statement after California’s decision. Mr. Espinoza-Madrigal called legacy admission an unfair and undeserved preference that is harmful to applicants of color.

Michael Casey/AP/File
Students walk through a gate at Harvard University, June 2023, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's legacy admissions practices, which at least one study has shown largely benefit white students, have come under fire by opponents.

Along with members of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education and President Joe Biden have called out the practice, with Mr. Biden saying that it expands “privilege instead of opportunity.” Three-quarters of Americans say legacy should not be considered in college admissions, up from 68% in 2019, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey.

Last week, Brown University’s student paper, The Brown Daily Herald, released the results of a poll in which nearly 60% of student respondents said they somewhat or strongly opposed legacy admissions. The Ivy League school is considering whether it will continue the practice. Of the students who enrolled in the Class of 2027, for example, 8% are legacies, according to Brown.

Some 460 private, nonprofit, four-year institutions reported that they do consider legacy admissions in a survey released last year by the National Center for Education Statistics. If it does do away with the practice, Brown will join the selective schools who don’t use it, including Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The California law will affect schools such as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Santa Clara University, all places where legacy admissions have accounted for double-digit percentages of admitted students.

“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work. The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The new legislation will not take effect until next September. Starting in 2026, all private schools in the state must submit an annual report to show that they are following the law. Schools that violate the law will appear on a published list by the California Department of Justice, and they will also have to disclose the overall number and certain information about legacy students who were admitted.

Private schools get federal and state dollars for research, financial aid, and tax exemptions – which means the state and federal governments can ask them to comply with laws. So far, the University of Southern California has said it will follow the law. Stanford has said that it will continue to review its admissions policies.

What colleges say about legacy admissions

Elite schools, including Harvard, have argued that the practice helps build community, and that it is part of their fundraising process. A committee at Brown looking at admissions practices wrote in a report released in February that is is considering “whether it is fair to end legacy preferences at the moment when the applicant pool is beginning to reflect the more diverse population of Brown alumni and alumnae, many of whom attended the University at a time when it was less inclusive and welcoming.”

But the group’s report also noted that “removing legacy preferences could lead to somewhat more diversity in the group of admitted students.”

“That’s the bottom line,” says Stanford Law School Professor Ralph Richard Banks. “[Legacy admissions] are unfair in the sense that you’re giving one student an advantage over another because of who their parent is. That’s not the way things work in the United States of America, but it’s also the case that the universities have developed a business model that relies on that sort of preference. That’s what drives the fundraising.”

Mr. Banks says he doesn’t know if legacy admissions bans will curtail a significant portion of those donations, but that the schools don’t want to find out.

“It’s important to say that it is possible that these institutions might lose some donations,” says Mr. Murphy from Education Reform Now. But he adds, “Most people that give donations to colleges give very small amounts, and if a college can only get money from their alumni by essentially setting up a quid pro quo, ‘You send us money, we’ll help your kid out,’ that’s a pretty bad sign for how that college has built community.”

Universities have spent money to defend their positions by lobbying behind closed doors, Mr. Banks says. The California law, for example, initially called for schools to be fined if they violated the law, which saw backlash from lawmakers and schools. But when that language was taken out, it received bipartisan approval. He thinks that will be the case with schools nationally.

Even so, some are still hoping the tides have turned.

“I firmly believe that in like 5 – maybe 10 – years, people are going to be like, ’Oh my God. Can you believe that colleges used to have legacy preferences?’” says Mr. Murphy. He adds that though the practice is nowhere near as heinous, he equates legacy admissions to people having segregated pools in the country. “That’s embarrassing that anybody ever thought that that was OK.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the portion of Americans in the Pew survey who say legacy should not be included in college admissions. 

You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to States get bolder about banning legacy admissions. What does that mean for equity?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2024/1016/california-college-legacy-admission-ban
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us