Why do colleges still use legacy status as a factor in admissions?
What is legacy admissions? Legacy college admissions is a policy that grants preferences to the children of alumni. The policy has been particularly important in the Ivy League and other elite, private schools. The logic has been that children of alumni may be among the most eager applicants, as they have learned a lot about a school literally at their parent’s knee.
Legacy admissions pays the bills
Legacy admissions is an important of business strategy. At these private, elite universities, alumni represent a huge chunk of the donors who regularly and generously give to the college. It makes sense, from a business perspective, to cultivate these donors with the abstract promise that their children will be given special consideration when they eventually apply for admission. It also makes sense that satisfied parents who see their progeny running around the campus of their alma mater will continue to give–and perhaps give so that their grandchildren, too, might be given the same sorts of preferences.
According to a 2023 study by some Harvard researchers, the real boost for admission is not legacy status, but wealth. Raj Chetty, who has done a lot to dispel myths about how higher education really works in this country, and his colleagues have shown that more than any other factor, wealth of the student’s family is the best predictor of admission. Families in the top one-percent of income have a better chance of admission.
Legacy admissions increases a college’s yield rate
Colleges are very protective of their “yield rate”: the percentage of offers of admission that are accepted by students. Harvard has a high yield rate above 80%. Less selective universities have yield rates that hover in the 20% range. In other words, only 1 in 5 accepted students end up attending these universities.
Many families unfairly believe that the higher the yield rate, the better the college. But, the fact is that even at not-so-selective schools, children of alumni have a higher propensity to accept an offer of admission than a kid whose parents did not attend. And what is true at the not-so-selective schools is also true at the very selective schools.
However, some of this link between yield and legacy has disappeared, as the Ivies have tended to show a clear preference to admit legacies in the Early Decision round–when the nominal yield rate is already 100 percent. The University of Pennsylvania used to make it quite clear–on their admissions website–that legacies would need to apply ED if they wanted the legacy “bump” in admissions. Interestingly, such language no longer exists on the Penn website but it still buries a paragraph for legacies at the bottom of its ‘preparing your application’ page.
The future of legacy admissions
A number of highly selective, private colleges have eliminated legacy preferences over the last several years: Wesleyan University, Amherst College, Johns Hopkins University, and Carnegie Mellon University were among the first to eliminate legacy status in admissions. A few public universities have done away with it, too, but legacy admission was never as important at public universities as at the elite private schools.
Still, colleges and universities that still cling to legacy admissions policies are on notice that the public at large is not all that happy with those preferences. Kids on campuses are protesting against these policies. It’s hard for Boards of Trustees to defend the policies. However, the Trump administration’s Department of Education has yet to weigh in on legacy admissions.
Legacy Admissions Trends
Education Reform Now updates its ‘The Future of Fair Admissions: Legacy Admissions‘ on an annual basis. The highlights of its 2025 report include:
- Just 24% of four-year colleges now consider legacy status, down from 29% in 2022 and 49% in 2015;
- Since 2015, 452 colleges and universities have stopped considering legacy status in admissions;
- Only 11% of public institutions, but 30% of private universities still consider legacy in the admissions process;
- In 24 states, there are no public or private colleges that consider legacy;
- States that have banned legacy admissions in recent years include California, Virginia (public only), Illinois and Maryland.
Education Reform Now even includes a list of colleges and universities that still consider legacy admissions according to the most recent data submitted to the US government.
Many Highly Selective Universities Still Consider Legacy Status in Admissions
According to the 2025 legacy admissions report by Education Reform Now, 56% of highly selective universities, defined as <25% acceptance rate, still consider legacy status in their admissions process.
A big reason why parents are willing to shell out so much money to pay full price for these elite schools is the “connections” they will make with the movers and shakers of America. They know that what they are paying for is not so much a classroom education where one learns from particularly brilliant professors. Rather, they are paying for access to the elite of America as well as the ‘elite’ corporations that hire at these universities including McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. Doing away with legacy admissions altogether could fundamentally change the Ivy League universities.
Second, if legacy preferences were entirely eliminated, along with all other non-academic, non-merit factors in admission (including the wealth of the family), would these institutions have the allure that they do now? We all cannot be rich, but maybe we can rub shoulders with them? We can’t all be from American dynastic families, but maybe we can hang out and drink beer with them, and maybe have one as a lab partner? If admission to the top private universities were simply a matter of academic merit alone, would everyone still want to go to them?
Example of Legacy Admissions: Yale
While many things have changed in the admissions offices in the Ivy League, legacy admissions has remained an important part of the Ivy League and other elite, private colleges and universities. We might also want to keep some perspective. Back in 1980, 24% of Yale’s freshman class were legacies. The most recent data point for the Yale Class of 2027 was that it had decreased to 11%. Of course, 11% is still significant: about 180 students out of this 1647 in the first year class.
Does it help to be a legacy when applying to college?
Sure, it helps to be a legacy if you’re applying to the college to which your parents attended–if you’re applying to one of those schools that still exercises legacy preferences. At least as so far as we know, right now.
But it also helps if you’re an athlete, or a musician, or an artist.
It also helps if you want to study Portuguese and the college is desperately looking for students to fill Portuguese classes.
And it certainly helps if your parents can shell out the full price for the cost of four years of tuition, room, board, fees, and beer money.
You get the idea. Being a legacy is just one hook amongst many when it comes to applying to college. And that hook may be disappearing. Or it may not.
But being a legacy at the top Ivies, aka, “the holy trinity or HYP” – Harvard, Yale, Princeton) – isn’t what it used to be.
Need help with the college admissions process?
If you want to chat about the possibilities and the pitfalls of exercising your legacy status, give us a call. There is no right or wrong answer to this question–at least not at the moment. What you need to do is examine your goals, your preferences, and your own moral compass. We can help you sort through the issues to come up with your own approach. So don’t hesitate to give us a call or contact us on our website.
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