A new report highlights the student differences at colleges that extend a legacy admissions ... [+]
Colleges and universities that give an admission preference to applicants who are related to alumni enroll lower proportions of Black, Hispanic and low-income students than those institutions who don’t extend a so-called legacy preference.
That’s a main conclusion from a new report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, which analyzed enrollment data for academic years 2021–22 and 2022–23 released through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
Legacy Admissions Policies Remain Common
Even though more than 100 institutions have eliminated legacy admission policies since 2015, and three states (Colorado, Virginia and Maryland) have now banned the practice, it continues to be prevalent especially at institutions that apply more selective admission policies.
Almost one third (32%) of all selective four-year higher education institutions in the U.S. considered the legacy status of applicants during the 2021-2022 academic year. These policies were particularly common at selective private nonprofit four-year institutions, where 42% considered applicants’ legacy status. But even at selective public four-year colleges, 15% considered an applicant’s alumni ties to the institution when making admissions decisions.
In the 2021-2022 academic year, 2.1 million undergraduate students enrolled in institutions considering legacy status in their admissions decisions. Public four-year colleges accounted for nearly 40% of those students.
Legacy Preferences And Student Enrollment Differences
Selective institutions that don’t consider legacy status in their admission decisions are more racially diverse, with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic students compared to selective institutions that do consider legacy status in admissions.
At selective institutions that take legacy relationships into account, 59% of undergraduates are white, compared to 51% at those institutions that don’t consider legacy status. A lower percentage of Hispanic students (12%) were enrolled at schools with legacy preferences compared to those not using such a policy (15%). A similar pattern was found for Black students, who comprised 11% of undergraduates at institutions with a legacy preference compared to 14% at those without such a policy.
Selective four-year institutions that do not consider legacy status also have a larger proportion of students from low-income backgrounds. Forty-two percent of full-time, first-time undergraduates at these institutions receive Pell Grants, compared to 36% at selective four-year institutions that do consider legacy in admissions. And as the report notes, “students who are the first in their families to attend college are particularly disadvantaged by legacy admissions policies because their parents have not earned a degree.”
The report concluded, “when colleges consider legacy in their admissions process, they prioritize access for children of college-educated families who are disproportionately white and well-off..., tilting the scales against Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income backgrounds.”
There’s been slow but steady progress in ending legacy preferences in college admissions. Its fairness has been challenged for years, but the heat has been turned up against the practice ever since last year’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina finding race-conscious admissions to be unconstitutional.
That ruling highlighted what many observers regard as an obvious double standard – prohibiting policies that give an edge to underrepresented minority students while at the same time permitting legacy preferences that primarily benefit white students who tend to come from affluent backgrounds.
New organizations, such as Class Action, a national effort by college students to work for more equitable admission practices at elite colleges, are bringing more pressure to end policies that consistently favor the wealthy and discriminates against the poor. But as this report documents, legacy preferences are still widespread and they continue to limit student access to college.
