Report Shows Legacy Admissions on the Decline
Credit: APCortizasJr / iStock Unreleased / Getty Images- A new report from Education Reform Now indicates that legacy admissions are at an all-time low.
- The group attributes this decline to legislative bans and institutions moving away from the tradition.
- The practice of legacy preference is now mostly concentrated in older, elite, wealthy colleges and universities in the Northeast.
The era of academic nepo babies might be coming to an end.
A new report from Education Reform Now (ERN) shows that legacy admissions — showing relatives of alumni and donors admissions preference — are now on the decline.
It indicates that over the past decade, over half of the colleges and universities that once considered legacy status no longer do so. ERN says most of these schools have dropped the practice voluntarily.
The ERN report said that 24% of four-year colleges consider legacy status, a dip from 29% in 2022 and 49% in 2015. Since 2015, about 452 colleges have stopped taking legacy status into account, with 92 colleges stopping legacy consideration after the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action.
“The unfair practice of passing an advantage in college admissions along family bloodlines to the students who already have so many advantages may well be on its way to disappearing altogether from higher education, thanks to a combination of legislative action and public disgust with the priorities elite colleges and universities feel the need to protect,” ERN said in the press release about the report.
More private colleges (30%) consider legacy status in admissions than public institutions (11%).
Why the Steep Decline in Legacy Preference?
After the Supreme Court banned affirmative action, arguments — and legal action — against legacy admissions have heated up.
One reason: Legacy admissions historically benefit wealthy, white students, even when they’re unqualified. And with considering race in admissions practices now banned, institutions and lawmakers are looking for ways to preserve diversity at selective schools.
Currently, five states ban the practice of considering legacy status:
New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C., all have bills to ban the consideration of legacy status. Illinois passed a ban on legacy admissions for public schools in 2024 and has introduced a bill to ban legacy admissions at private schools in 2025.
One bill introduced late last year is a bipartisan effort to preserve merit in college admissions nationwide. U.S. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. want to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to remove applicants’ relationships with alums or donors as a “determinative factor.”
“The willingness of elite institutions to put money ahead of merit epitomizes why many Americans across the political spectrum are wondering not just about the value of higher education but the values of higher education,” said James Murphy, director of postsecondary policy at ERN and author of the report.
“Getting rid of legacy preferences is a way for colleges and universities to show the country that they share our values and that they still care about fairness and merit.”