Affirmative Action and Legacy Admissions

In late June of 2023, the Supreme Court voted to put an end to affirmative action in college admissions. Race-based affirmative action is an advantage given to mainly Black and Hispanic students in the college admission process. The ruling prevents schools from factoring race into their admission decisions. The lawsuit was brought up by a group of Asian American students who claimed they were discriminated against in the college admissions process because of their race. 

Even though the topic is controversial, many expected this outcome. Tania Bradt, the Director of College Counseling at the School stated, “I personally, and I don’t think any of us in my profession were very surprised by the fact that the Supreme Court was going to hear this affirmative action case again, nor was I surprised that the court decided to overturn the affirmative action case.” 

This ruling has also opened up the door for more debate on legacy admissions. Legacy admission is when a school gives a student priority in admissions because a family member attended the school. Schools use legacy admissions for money, as admitting family members to the college keeps alumni donors involved and more willing to aid the school financially. Personally, I think it is unfair to give advantages for legacy to students who are born into well educated and usually wealthy families but not to give an advantage to racial minorities who are often less fortunate.

Legacy admissions are still used by many highly selective colleges, and have a substantial impact. According to research from the New York Times, children of alumni at elite schools had a huge advantage when applying to that school, getting accepted 37% of the time. Non-legacies applicants to these elite schools were only accepted 11% of the time. While being a legacy does not automatically get you into college, it clearly helps you a lot.

A popular argument to keep legacy admissions is that it greatly helps the schools funding. According to Fobres in 2018, $12.15 billion were donated by alumni to the 20 universities that received the most donations. However, there are solid reasons to get rid of legacy admissions as well. It perpetuates inequality by giving the wealthy families another advantage, and generally less fortunate kids a disadvantage. Bradt says, “The argument can be made, if we’re not using race and ethnicity to factor into these decisions, then why should we also be factoring in the fact that your parents or grandparents also went to that institution.”

The topic of affirmative action and legacy admissions has recently been very controversial. While I may still be on the side that thinks both affirmative action and legacy admissions should be legal, with the new ruling, legacy admissions should be illegal. As Bradt mentioned, why should colleges be allowed to admit based on legacy, but not race. To me, that does not make much sense. I would not be surprised if the Supreme Court sees a case on legacy admissions in the near future. I understand the reasons behind legacy admissions, but I think it is important for schools to find other ways to get donations. Even just letting in less legacies every year would be an improvement. Legacy admissions and affirmative action are both important, but it should be both or neither.