Thousands of students apply to colleges each year and those who apply to schools that their relatives attended in the past get extra points towards their application in admissions. That’s called being a legacy admit.
Inside Higher Ed conducted a survey of admissions directors in 2018 and found that 42% of private institutions and 6% of public institutions said they consider legacy status as a factor when selecting applicants for their freshman class. But not every school does this; some of the largest public universities do not give points for having relatives who are alumni, and other colleges are beginning to drop it. As schools reduce the number of students admitted due to legacy, it increases the admissions chances for students who don’t have connections, and whose parents or grandparents didn’t attend college — also known as “first generation college students”.
Johns Hopkins University, University of California and California State University recently announced that they will not consider legacy admissions anymore. And in May 2021, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill to prohibit the use of legacy as admissions criteria for all of its public colleges and universities.
Colleges make some sacrifice when they don’t admit as many legacies: there will be less freshmen who are familiar with the traditions and culture of the school; less students with built-in spirit; less donations by doubly-grateful alumni. A school that is low on funding might want rely more on legacies.
Since historically, college alumni in the past were fairly wealthy and not diverse, legacies admitted also tend to be from more wealthy families and not as diverse as the pool of students without connections who apply nowadays. Some colleges like Princeton University have accepted four times as many legacies to regular applicants.
Just for financial reasons, to end legacy preference is a major event in college admissions.
