In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the consideration of race-conscious admissions, a growing number of lawmakers, advocates, and higher education leaders have called for banning legacy status as a potential factor in the admission process.
Opponents of legacy admissions.— a preference given to students who have family ties to an institution.— argue that it provides an unfair advantage for applicants who are already disproportionately wealthy. This policy is most prevalent among selective private nonprofit institutions, of which 42% incorporate legacy status into their admission decisions, according to a recent report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP).
For example, approximately one-third of Harvard University’s class of 2027 had some family connection to the institution, according to data compiled by the Harvard Crimson, the school’s newspaper.
Among these legacy students, nearly 65% had an annual family income greater than $125,000 and 29% came from households earning $500,000 per year or more — the highest income tier included in the data. In contrast, for the entire class, only 46.6% and 13.4% of students, respectively, had family incomes above $125,000 and $500,000.
Meanwhile, first-generation students comprised only about 16% of Harvard’s 2027 class. Of these, 80% came from households making less than $125,000 and 64% from under $80,000.
Unlike the highly polarized debate over race in admissions, the growing movement against legacy admissions has received bipartisan support at both federal and state levels. For example, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, and Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, co-authored the Merit- Based Educational Reforms and Institutional Transparency (MERIT) Act, which would end “preferential treatment” for prospective students who have personal relationships or ties to donors or alumni.
“America is a land of opportunity, not a land of aristocracy,” Young said in a press release announcing the bill. “Legacy admissions restrict opportunities for many bright and talented young Americans and provide unmerited advantage to the most connected individuals in our society.”
In addition to ending legacy admissions, the MERIT Act would require the U.S. Department of Education to enhance its data collection on the admissions process specifically regarding students’ affiliations with donors and alumni.
“A student’s acceptance into a college should not hinge on whether their parents attended that school or donated a large sum of money,” Kaine said in the release. “This legislation would help bring more fairness to the higher education admissions process, and ensure that first-generation and low-income students are not put at a disadvantage because of their parents’ educational histories or incomes.”
So far, lawmakers in three states — Colorado, Virginia, and Maryland.— have banned legacy preferences, with Colorado doing so in 2021 and Virginia and Maryland ending the practice this spring.
Legislators in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, and New York have introduced bills aimed at improving transparency within admissions and eliminating advantages related to family ties. Those proposed in northeastern states would be particularly impactful on the nation’s most elite institutions, given the concentration of Ivy League schools in the region.
In addition to perpetuating wealth disparities, legacy admissions also exacerbate racial and ethnic inequities, according to the IHEP report. Data show that schools that do not consider legacy status enroll more Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous students. IHEP researchers urge both lawmakers and institutions to eliminate the consideration of donor and alumni relations and instead bolster support for low-income and first-generation students.
“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,” Marián Vargas, a senior research analyst at IHEP, and Sean Tierney, IHEP’s director of research and policy, wrote in their summary of the report. “To diversify student populations, enrich learning communities, and deliver educational excellence to all students, institutions should stop considering legacy status when making admissions decisions and instead consider whether students are the first in their family to go to college.”
