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Higher Education Issue: Legacy Admissions

Jazmyne Barron

Higher Education Administration and Leadership Program

California State University, Fresno

HEAL 227

Dr. Gonzalez

December 5, 2023
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Introduction

There is nothing like the feeling you get when you open your admission letter (or now

email) to a university. With more students attending universities it has become increasingly

competitive, especially within Ivy League colleges. Many universities want to embrace diversity

but struggle to do so, and would rely on affirmative action to allow them to be more “diverse”.

During the summer of 2023 the Supreme Court ruled to end race based affirmative action in

college admissions (Walsh, 2023). The ending of affirmative action has people calling for Ivy

League universities to also end the use of Legacy Admissions in their admission process. Most

have been targeted towards Harvard.

Admitting “legacy” students is a practice favored by many prestigious universities. Some

favor it more than others, and have their own reasoning behind doing this. Legacy admissions

offers advantages that make getting into universities difficult for others. The Supreme Court has

already ended race based affirmative action that allowed admissions to consider race in the

process. This allowed for students that did not have the same advantages as others to possibly

increase their chances of receiving applicants to less diverse institutions. Ending one form of

affirmative action should lead to the ending of legacy based affirmative action.

Legacy Admissions

The idea behind legacy admissions is to allow prospective students of a University to

have an advantage in the admissions process if they are related to an alumnus of that University

(LaGesse, 2023). Being related to an alumnus is already a major advantage, but the advantage

becomes even greater when that alumnus is also a prominent figure in the community, or is a

large donor of the university (LaGesse, 2023). Some universities have claimed they do not
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consider legacy in the admissions process but a report from the Washington Post has found that

over 100 Universities, including all ivy league, still consider legacy status in the admissions

process (Anderson, 2023). Despite this the practice of prioritized admissions of legacies is

becoming less of a common practice; some major universities have done away with this practice

and those include: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University in

Maryland, The California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania,

and The University of California, Santa Barbara (LaGesse, 2023).

The universities that no longer take into consideration the legacy status have some

interesting insights. At Amherst College they found that they have gone to 6% from 11% of the

legacy admitted students and anticipated that 19% of their 2023 admitted students to be

first-generation students which would be the highest in this decade (LaGesse, 2023). John

Hopkins stopped completely considering legacy status in 2020 and has found since 2013 their

newly admitted students who have a legacy status has reduced from 8.5% to 1.7% while

simultaneously first-generation students have gone from 16.7% to 30.8% (LaGesse, 2023). We

are beginning to see the end of an unethical and dated practice.

Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action In College Admissions

In June 2023 the United States Supreme Court effectively ended the use of affirmative

action in the college admission process (Walsh, 2023). This means universities can no longer

take race into account during the admissions process (Walsh, 2023). Following the decision

President Joe Biden stated he did not agree with the court's decision and called for the

Department of Education to investigate the practices of legacy admissions (Walsh, 2023). Since
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then the Department of Education has opened an investigation on Harvard’s admissions process

of legacy admissions (Masih, 2023).

During Harvard's admissions process it has been recognized that they give preference to

recruited athletes, relatives of donors, legacies, and applicants of faculty/ staff (Shear &

Hartocollis, 2023). These types of applicants make up roughly 5% of the applicant pool but are

roughly 30% of the admitted students each year (Shear & Hartocollis, 2023). This is not the first

time that Harvard has been investigated by the Department of Education for their admissions

process, in the 1980s the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights investigated claims that

Asian Americans were being overlooked in favor of white applicants (Shear & Hartocollis,

2023). The primary reason for the investigation was because it was believed that Harvard had

preferred preferences for legacy applicants but the investigation found that Harvard had reasons

for preferring legacies (Shear & Hartocollis, 2023). Harvard is the epitome of privilege, and in

their decades as an institution has favored their own. The current investigation by the Education

Department’s Office of Civil Rights is ongoing and has not shared any new insights into their

admissions process. Since the start of the investigation a spokeswoman has shared that Harvard

was already reviewing their admissions process (Shear & Hartocollis, 2023).

Implications

The role of an admissions board is to select the most qualified applicant based. Potential

students work hard to make sure they are meeting all the necessary criteria set forth by the

University they plan to hopefully attend. Universities that favor legacy applicants over

non-legacy applicants does not make this process fair. Legacy applicants may already have an

advantage without the legacy status if they come from wealthy families. They may have access
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to test tutors, sports, travel, and the ability to tour a variety of colleges around the U.S.

(Anderson, 2023). During the admissions process Universities take a variety of criteria into

consideration, this could include their test scores, extracurriculars, and more but when the final

decision is made for two almost identical candidates it is based on their legacy status it implies

the University cares more about pleasing their alumnus then opening their University to new

families.

Recommendation

Following the elimination of race based affirmative action in college admissions, it is

only right for legacy based affirmative action to be next. The Supreme Court's decision has

already led prestigious universities in this direction, some universities are quietly considering

eliminating this preference or have announced it publicly like Wesleyan University (Anderson,

2023). Completely eliminating legacy admissions will make the admissions process more

equitable and allow for more first-generation students the opportunity to attend more prestigious

than before.

Conclusion

Applying for college is an opportunity for so many to grow their educational wealth. It is

unfortunate that some students lose that opportunity simply because their families did not attend

a university they would like to attend. Legacy admissions take away the opportunity for some

students to attend more prestigious institutions or any institution that considers legacy status in

applicants. The Supreme Court unfortunately ended race based affirmative action, the next step is

to end legacy based affirmative action. For the admissions process to be completely equitable

any unequal advantages should be eliminated.

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References

Anderson, N. (2023, July 7). Pressure mounts on colleges to ditch ‘legacy’ admissions factor.

Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/07/16/legacy-college-admissions-affir

mative-action/

LaGesse, S. (2023, July 21). Legacy admissions: What it is and why colleges are reconsidering

it. U.S. News & World Report.

https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/articles/legacy-admissions-what-it-is-and-why

-colleges-are-reconsidering-it

Masih, N. (2023, July 28). The tradition of ‘legacy’ college admissions is under fire. Here’s why.

The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/07/28/legacy-admissions-explained-har

vard-lawsuit/

Shear, M. D., & Hartocollis, A. (2023, July 25). Education dept. opens civil rights inquiry into

Harvard’s legacy admissions. The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/25/us/politics/harvard-admissions-civil-rights-inquiry.

html

Walsh, M. (2023, July 29). Supreme Court ends affirmative action in college admissions in

decision watched by K-12. Education Week.

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/supreme-court-ends-affirmative-action-in-college

-admissions-in-decision-watched-by-k-12/2023/06