The college admissions landscape is constantly changing and evolving to fit the needs of modern students. With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action in June 2023, many heads turned to focus on the role of nepotism in college admissions and questioned the fairness behind it.
Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation prohibiting private universities from giving admission preference to alumni’s relatives, major donors or applicants with other strong connections to schools. This ban goes into effect in September 2025 making California the fifth state to crack down on legacy and donor admissions; alongside Colorado, Virginia, Illinois and Maryland.
“Being a legacy is kind of like getting the Disney FastPass to go to the front of the line,” associate professor of education at the University of Maryland Julie Park said. “It’s not that you didn’t pay to get in like everyone else, and you probably have pretty decent credentials. But being a legacy is something that gives you an extra boost.”
A majority of the public supports this new ban as 75% of Americans believe that being an alumni descendant should not factor into admission decisions. On top of that, 79% of college students want a legacy admission ban due to its unfairness and discriminatory history.
Earlier this year, students at Stanford University, one of California’s most prestigious private colleges, pushed the university to gut their legacy admissions. Even legacy admit students joined in, recognizing the disadvantage it puts non-legacy applicants at.
“As a legacy student myself, I find legacy admission completely abominable,” Stanford University student Sophie Callcott said. “It seems like such an obvious agent of inequality and supports an American aristocracy.”
On the other hand, critics of the bill question how these private and non-profit universities will now receive funding.
“Despite the unfairness of legacy preferences, private universities should be permitted to rely on them, as they are absolutely central to the fund-raising model on which universities rely,” Founder of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice Rick Banks said.
At the University of Southern California, one of California’s private universities, legacy applications are labeled accordingly and receive a second look by a senior admission staff member. According to the Daily Trojan, in 2022, 14.4% of USC’s freshman class were legacy and donor admits. With that being said, the 2023 Annual Report of the University of Southern California on Admissions Practices claims all applicants are evaluated on the same criteria, regardless of any connections to the school.
While many private colleges hold that this new ban won’t make a difference in their admission process, it ensures fairness and doesn’t leave questions of who deserves to be admitted or not.
“It’s not going to have as big an impact as people think it will. It’s more symbolic,” president of the Western Association for College Admission Counseling Julio Mata said. “It might open up a few spots for regular students, but it won’t completely change the landscape.”
