When hearing about college admissions, a number of words like “legacy”, “minority”, and “first-gen” seem to come up again and again. In June 2023, the US Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, declaring it unlawful to use race as a factor in the college admissions process. This decision, however, only limited one aspect of admissions: affirmative action. Judicial opinions, among a myriad of other standpoints, continued to bring up the ongoing issue of legacy admissions. Given that the decision clearly enforces selective diversity, it begs the question of the Court’s stance on legacy admissions, a long-standing policy that benefits children of alumni and donors.
Though some colleges don’t place as much weight on someone’s “legacy status”, it has often been rumored to be influential when deciding the proper action on a candidate who is on the brink of admission. In fact, a study conducted by Harvard economists stated that within highly selective colleges, legacy students were four times more likely to be admitted than their non-legacy counterparts (using standardized test scores as a shared variable for sample selection). In another recent paper posted this month, a different set of researchers found the admittance rate for legacy students at Ivy League schools to be three times as high as non-legacy students with comparable profiles.
However, at some schools, the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action did have an impact on legacy admissions as well. Wesleyan University for example, removed legacy status as a factor in admissions following the decision stating, “…it became clear… that any advantage you give to incumbents, to people who already have advantages, is a glaring sign of unfairness.” The trend of leveling the playing field has become more prominent in recent years, most dramatically with the change in standardized testing policies during COVID-19, shifting towards a test-optional policy. In fact, over the past eight years, more than a hundred colleges have already ended legacy admissions.
Simply put, the removal of affirmative action demands the removal of legacy admissions. In establishing guidelines for selection on the basis of diversity, both the Court and colleges should also remove legacy status as a factor in admissions. Though it can be argued that alumni connections often favor Caucasian and more wealthy students, it more importantly partially restricts the student body from embodying talent and intelligence over favoritism and luck. In the near future, I hope to see more institutions moving towards fair practices in terms of looking at an application holistically, but without the knowledge of a student’s parents or other relatives.
Sources
