Eliminating Legacy Admissions Has Bipartisan Support
By Abby Springs
In June, the Supreme Court ended the use of affirmative action in college admissions, determining that schools cannot use race as a factor when making decisions about student admissions. The controversial ruling has sparked a national conversation about bias towards the wealthy in college admissions, specifically through the practice of legacy admissions.
Legacy admissions, in which schools are more likely to accept the children of alumni or donors, largely benefit white, wealthy students. Beginning in the 1920s, elite universities instituted the practice as a means to keep out Jewish and immigrant students from largely white, Protestant institutions. Today, studies have found that having at least one alumni parent increases a student’s rate of admission by 45%, and legacy students are nearly four times as likely to be accepted to an elite college than non-legacy applicants with the same test scores.
Data for Progress surveyed likely voters to determine attitudes toward the consideration of legacy status in college admissions. We find that voters across party lines believe that the children of alumni have an unfair advantage and support legislation to ban legacy admissions.
Sixty-five percent of likely voters believe that children of alumni and major donors to a university often have an unfair advantage when applying to that specific college or university. This includes majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
Furthermore, 70% of voters say that colleges and universities should not be allowed to consider legacy status when deciding which students to admit. Only 22% say that schools should be able to take legacy status into consideration.
At the state and federal levels, policymakers have proposed legislation that would end the use of legacy admissions. In Congress, Democrats have introduced the Fair College Admissions for Students Act, while lawmakers in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts have made similar proposals.
We find that 68% of voters support legislation to ban legacy admissions, including 72% of Democrats and 66% of both Republicans and Independents.
These findings underscore that a bipartisan majority of voters oppose legacy admissions. Lawmakers across party lines should take this into consideration as they grapple with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action and strive to make higher education more accessible and equitable for all.
Abby Springs (@abby_springs) is the Press Secretary at Data for Progress.