New Bill Targets Legacy Admissions At Private Colleges

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The law would ban state financial aid for private universities in California that consider legacy in admissions.

New Bill Targets Legacy Admissions At Private Colleges

The law would ban state financial aid for private universities in California that consider legacy in admissions.

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A new bill introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting would ban state financial aid for private universities in California that consider legacy when admitting students.

Ting, who represents western San Francisco and northwestern San Mateo County, joined LAist’s daily news program, AirTalk to discuss the legislation along with Jerry Lucido, professor of clinical education and senior scholar at the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice at USC.

What the bill would do and who's affected

The bill aims to take away Cal Grant funding from institutions that consider family ties during the admissions process.

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“The Cal Grant … is a very powerful way that colleges and universities — the private ones, as well as the public ones — advance their equity agenda by having more financial aid for students who need it. The prospect of taking that away makes this bill a very powerful disincentive for colleges to do legacy admission,” explained Lucido.

Said Ting, “What we're talking about is really only three major institutions in the state, which is Stanford, USC, and Santa Clara, who admit between 13 to 15% of their class and give preferential treatment to donors and alumni.”

He further contextualized those numbers, “That's 50% more than the number of African Americans they admit to their class, and almost the same number of Latinos they admit.”

Legacies and equity

Proponents of legacy admissions say they strengthen alumni networks, leading to increased donations that can cover more scholarships. Legacy students are also more likely to pay full tuition to attend.

“People who do college admissions care a lot about equity, but they have to balance many competing interests … And when you change one aspect of that ecology, other aspects are impacted. That said, I agree with the Assemblyman that legacy admission should end.” explained Lucido. “I would favor being very transparent about how all of these spaces are being used and who gets them.”

Ting referenced a study by Opportunity Insights, a group of Harvard economists, that found that “if you were a family from the top 1% of the country, which is a family making over $600,000, you were twice as likely to get admitted to those same institutions as anybody else, the other 99%. And that is for children or for students who have the same grades, the same test scores, roughly the same activities.”

Second time's the charm?

Ting attempted to pass a similar bill in 2019. “We couldn't get it out of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, which is why we decided to turn it into a study bill and ask the institutions to report data … Now that we actually have data, we see what institutions really heavily rely on preferential treatment for wealthy donors and wealthy alumni.”

2024’s political climate is markedly different from 2019’s, particularly since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last year.

“I think we have a much better chance of having it pass this year,” said Ting.

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