New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions
It’s time to end unfair college admissions practice in New York.
New York Senate Bill 4170 will be reintroduced for a third time by sponsors Senator Andrew Gounardes (Brooklyn, NY) and Assembly Member Latrice Walker (Brooklyn, NY) in the upcoming New York State Legislative session.
Legacy preference is the practice of giving preferential treatment to college applicants who are related to an alumnus of the school. The concept of “legacy preference” has been around for nearly a century. According to a research article from Purdue University, legacy preference was used to limit the number of Jewish and second-generation immigrant students who could enter college, mainly at large Protestant universities. Today, too many universities use legacy admissions as a way to maintain engagement with and connections to alumni networks.
The legacy question has been described as affirmative action for the wealthy and privileged. In addition to eliminating legacy-based admissions at all higher education institutions across the state of New York, Senate Bill 4170 will penalize schools that continue these harmful practices. The penalty, set at 10% of freshman tuition revenue collected for each year a legacy preference is included, will go to the NY State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) as financial aid funds. New York universities such as Columbia and Cornell who still ‘seem’ to consider the legacy question do not report how many legacy applicants they admit. In 2021, the Student Cornell Assembly passed a resolution for an end to this practice, citing that Cornell was founded on the principle of “any person, any study” and that legacy admissions inhibits this goal.
Colorado set the precedent in 2021, being the first state to ban this advantage in its public institutions. New York could be the first state in the nation to ban legacy admissions at public and private institutions, making it a leader in providing a fairer admissions process for all students.
As the New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions, we are passionate about ending inequitable barriers that deter marginalized students from attending higher education institutions. We know that the elimination of the legacy question across college admission processes will lead to a fairer higher education environment and experience for historically underrepresented students.
This has an overwhelming effect on those who enter highly selective schools across the state and presents an opportunity for these schools to admit more low-income students. Many of New York's private colleges and universities rank in the bottom quintile nationally when it comes to improving the social mobility of low-income students and students of color. These schools include Hamilton College, Union College, Skidmore College, Sarah Lawrence University and Vassar College.
Following the June 2023 SCOTUS decision banning race-conscious admissions, New York must level the playing field in college admissions by ensuring that admissions officers are not putting a thumb on the scale for students who already have the most resources and advantages in the college admissions process. Legacy preference is inherently unfair and make a mockery of merit. According to a Pew survey from 2022, taken last year, 75% of Americans believe it is inappropriate for universities to give preferential treatment in admissions to students whose parents went to the same university. A national poll also showed that 81% of Republicans, 93% of Democrats, and 83% of independent voters agree diversity in higher education is beneficial for students' future career advancement.
As of 2023, 42 percent of public and private colleges in New York still consider legacy applicants. Between 2015 and 2022, more than 100 colleges and universities ended the use of legacy preference. A dozen more followed suit after the Supreme Court decision, including Wesleyan University, New York University, Occidental College, and Virginia Tech.
1. Legacy preferences are not used that much and do not have a significant effect on someone’s chances of getting into a college.
42% of colleges and universities in New York State reported to the Department of Education in 2023 that they consider legacy status in their admissions process. It is difficult to weigh the impact of legacy preferences because almost all colleges hide the number of legacies they admit each year and what the admit rate is for legacies. If colleges want us to believe legacy has a small impact, they will need to provide the data to prove it. We do know, thanks to an important 2023 study by economists from Harvard and Brown, that legacy preferences have a very big impact at Ivy League universities, such as Columbia or Cornell.
2. Legacy opponents are just starting to make an uproar on the issue now that colleges are getting more diverse.
There is nothing new about the push to eliminate legacy preferences. Criticism of legacy admissions began in the 1960s. In 2003, Ted Kennedy introduced a bill to collect data on legacy preference. The fight to get rid of legacy preferences is a civil rights fight. Legacy preferences overwhelmingly favor wealthy, white applicants and work contrary to racial and economic diversity.
The way to fix a corrupt practice is not to marginally increase the number or diversity of people who benefit from that corruption. The way to fix a corrupt practice is to eliminate it.
3. It is unfair to say that most Legacy Alumni and/or Admitted students come from wealthy and/or affluent families.
It is no secret that many applicants from affluent families tend to be well-prepared academically, given their generational and familiar trajectory coming from well-educated parents who have the financial means to ensure their children have all the academic, social and professional resources they need to prosper in our educational system. Legacy Students from the top 1%, are 5 times as likely to be admitted as the average applicant with similar test scores, demographic characteristics, and admissions office ratings.
Three myths about legacy preference in NY:
