These Schools Have Banned Legacy Admissions
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Legacy admissions is the practice of giving preferential treatment to children of alumni and donors at colleges and universities.- During the 2022-2023 academic year, more than 1,300 institutions reported that they did not consider an applicant’s legacy status for admission.Note Reference [1]
- During the same year, however, one-third of selective four-year institutions (32%) reported that they did consider legacy status.Note Reference [2]
- Since the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that banned affirmative action at colleges and universities, at least six institutions have ended their legacy admissions policies.
- Dozens more schools ended their legacy policies prior to 2023, according to archived admissions data.
Legacy admissions practices have been a recurrent subject of debate in higher education for decades. But in 2023, they were further thrust into the spotlight following the Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action.
Higher education experts, future applicants, and their families wondered if it was time to put an end to the controversial practice that increases the likelihood of unfairness in college admissions.
As a result, a growing number of institutions have put a formal end to the century-old tradition.
In this report, we detail which schools have recently announced that they will no longer consider an applicant’s legacy status, and which schools abandoned the practice long ago.
What Is Legacy Admissions?
Legacy admissions is the practice of giving preferential treatment to applicants whose relatives attended the same institution.
Many schools that practice legacy admissions have claimed that legacy status accounts for a small part of an applicant’s overall consideration. But the percentage of legacy students at the nation’s most elite institutions paints a different picture.
- At Harvard University, 32% of the class of 2027 are legacy students.Note Reference [3]
- At both Dartmouth and Yale, just over 1 in 10 students (11%) in the class of 2027 have a legacy affiliation.Note Reference [4], Note Reference [5]
- At Stanford University, 14.9% of the class of 2026 are legacy students.Note Reference [6]
- And at Cornell University, legacy students account for just under 15% of the class of 2025.Note Reference [7]
Each of these institutions has a general acceptance rate under 10%, yet they admit more than 10% of students who are related to alumni.Note Reference [8]
While these numbers may seem exclusive to Ivy League institutions, it’s not just the Harvards and Yales of higher education that consider legacy status. According to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), during the 2022-2023 academic year, 32% of selective four-year institutions considered an applicant’s legacy status during the admissions process.Note Reference [2]
Still, more than 1,300 colleges and universities during the same period reported that they did not consider legacy status even if it was submitted.
The following lists showcase the institutions that have formally ended their legacy admissions policies or that never had legacy admissions policies at all.
Schools That Recently Ended Legacy Admissions Practices
Below is a list of some of the colleges and universities that ended legacy admissions practices following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on affirmative action.
- Carleton College
- Loyola Marymount University
- Occidental College
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- University of Pittsburgh
- Virginia Tech
- Wesleyan University
Schools That Ended Legacy Admissions Prior to 2023
Each year, thousands of institutions submit information about their admissions considerations on a form known as the Common Data Set (CDS). The following list shows that for the 2022-2023 academic year, these schools’ CDS reports all indicated that alumni relations was not considered.
Some of these institutions put an end to legacy practices decades ago.
Schools That Never Considered Legacy Status
- California Institute of Technology
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- University of Washington
Some Schools and States Are Rethinking Their Legacy Admissions Policies
Amid controversy, backlash, and even a few legacy admissions lawsuits, a small number of institutions are currently reviewing their long-standing legacy policies.
In October 2023, Yale University president Peter Salovey said on a panel that they have begun having conversations about whether or not accounting for legacy status is getting in the way of diversifying their applicant pool.Note Reference [9]
Just one month prior, Brown University president Christina H. Paxson formed a committee to reexamine the institution’s policies on legacy status, early decision, and test-optional admissions.Note Reference [10]
On March 8, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin approved a bill that will ban legacy admissions practices at the state’s public colleges and universities beginning July 1, 2024.Note Reference [11]
And most recently, Maryland Governor Wes Moore approved a bill that will do the same in Maryland, also effective July 1.Note Reference [12]
References
- Admissions Considerations: Legacy status 2022-23. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, NCES. 2022. (back to footnote 1 in content ⤶)
- Four-Year Colleges and Universities Report Over Half of Undergraduate Students Completed Degrees Within 8 Years. NCES. December 12, 2023. (back to footnote 2 in content ⤶)
- Meet the Class of 2027: Class Makeup and Admissions. The Harvard Crimson. Accessed February 2024. (back to footnote 3 in content ⤶)
- Yale College Class of 2027 First-Year Class Profile (PDF). Yale University. Accessed February 2024. (back to footnote 4 in content ⤶)
- Class Profile. Dartmouth College. Accessed February 2024. (back to footnote 5 in content ⤶)
- Stanford University Annual Report in Compliance with Education Code 66018.5 Regarding Undergraduate Admissions for Fall 2022 Enrollment (PDF). Stanford University. June 2023. (back to footnote 6 in content ⤶)
- Profile: Class of 2025: Cornell University (PDF). Accessed February 2024. (back to footnote 7 in content ⤶)
- Acceptance rate drops to 3.68%, majority enrolled are non-white students. The Stanford Daily. February 28, 2023. (back to footnote 8 in content ⤶)
- Yale to review its legacy admissions preference: ‘Everything is up for discussion.’ Yale Daily News. October 27, 2023. (back to footnote 9 in content ⤶)
- Brown president charges ad hoc committee to examine admissions practices. Brown University. September 6, 2023. (back to footnote 10 in content ⤶)
- HB 48 Higher educational institutions, public; admissions applications, legacy admissions, etc. Virginia’s Legislative Information System. March 2024. (back to footnote 11 in content ⤶)
- Legislation – HB0004. Maryland General Assembly. May 2024. (back to footnote 12 in content ⤶)