How Legacy Admissions Hurt NY Students

To hear MAGA politicians tell it: immigrants and people of color in America have had it too good for too long. In their quest to free the country from the supposed scourge of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, these politicians conveniently omit the fact that, by nearly every metric, white wealthy Americans are doing better than every other racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic demographic in the country.

This effort to stamp out DEI intentionally sidesteps the many ways in which white wealthy people enjoy clear and unfair advantages in our society. Take the policy of legacy admissions as just one example.

What is Legacy Admission?

Legacy admission or legacy preference is the practice of providing an automatic advantage in college admissions decisions to applicants whose family members attended the same college. Steeped in a racist and antisemitic history, this practice continues today, including in New York.

Legacy preference puts students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students at a disadvantage by giving a boost to students who already enjoy the most advantages when it comes to the college admissions process.

New York has the largest number of colleges and universities that use legacy preference in the country. Fifteen percent of colleges in the country that use legacy preference are in New York.

Many New York colleges and universities that consider legacy in admissions decisions hide the data on the demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds of legacy students from the public. But the New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions cites research showing that legacy preference primarily benefits white and wealthy students.

Impacts of Legacy Admission

For many decades, colleges and universities excluded students of color from being admitted to their schools. Universities in New York did not start accepting Black and Latinx students in high numbers until the last half of the twentieth century. Because of this, there are fewer students of color whose parents previously attended these schools. So, it should be no surprise that legacy preference predominantly benefits white students, and it is very likely to continue to for many decades to come.

A 2019 study using data of Harvard students found that white legacies made up nearly 77 percent of legacy students admitted to the university over a 20-year time span. In other words, for every legacy of color schools admit, they offer three white legacies a spot. Even in cases where Black and Latinx legacy students had two parents who were alumni, white legacy applicants with just one alumni parent still had a higher rate of admission.

Legacy preference has always predominantly benefited white students, but since 2023, students of color have lost one way in which they were able to help even the playing field. That year, the Supreme Court ruled colleges that consider a candidate’s race, even as one of many factors in admissions decisions, violate the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause.

Since this decision, there’s been a dramatic decrease in enrollment of students of color. For the Class of 2028, at universities such as Columbia and Cornell, enrollment dropped between 40 percent and 50 percent for Black students at both schools and nearly 40 percent for Latinx students at Cornell.

Legacy admissions doesn’t just unfairly advantage white scholars, it also helps ensure schools are full of wealthy students. A 2023 study found that two-thirds of legacy applicants to highly selective colleges and universities, including Columbia and Cornell, come from families earning more than $315,000 per year. The same study discovered that just one in 20 legacy applicants come from families earning $100,000 or less.

This disparity is even wider in New York. The 2023 study found that our state has the largest percentage of students coming from families that are in the top one percent of income earners than any other state in the country.

The Fair College Admissions Act

Many schools are waking up to the fact that legacy admissions are a bad idea, and three out of four people in America support ending them altogether. More than half the colleges that considered legacy status in 2015 no longer do so, and five states have banned legacy admissions.

This year, New York failed to join these states by passing a bill in the state legislature called the Fair College Admissions Act during this year’s legislative session. This legislation would prohibit legacy admissions practices at all colleges and universities in New York. It also includes a financial penalty for schools that continue these harmful practices that will go towards a fund to help low-income students afford college.

The bill would create a fairer higher education environment, more diverse college classes, and more opportunities for students from historically underrepresented groups.

As the Trump administration continues to fearmonger about the DEI bogeyman, the truth is that there are lots of real unfair inequalities in America. State lawmakers can fight one of those inequalities and give students of color a better opportunity to get a higher education — but only if they find the political courage to act.