10-10-2024
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation prohibiting private colleges and universities from giving special consideration to applicants with connections to these institutions. Known as "legacy admissions," many higher education institutions give some preference to applicants with family members who attended or donated to the school. California is home to elite schools, such as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the five Clairemont colleges. Maryland is the only other state to ban legacy admissions for private schools. California's top public schools stopped using legacy admissions many years ago. Newsom said that “merit, skill and hard work” should determine college admissions and that this ban will open higher education to more applicants.
Stanford told the New York Times that it will continue to review its admission policies." USC said it used a "holistic" review for admissions and that "all admitted students meet our high academic standards." Legacy admissions tend to benefit white and wealthy applicants. Following the Varsity Blues scandal, the California legislature demanded that private higher education schools show how many students they admitted with ties to alumni or donors. Stanford and USC both had about 14% of admitted students with connections to the schools. Santa Clara University had about 13% of its applicants with ties.
The law will go into effect in September 2025. Both Republicans and Democrats in the legislature supported the new law. However, the law does not include any civil penalties for failure to comply. The state will publish the institutions by name on the California Department of Justice website. This law comes about a year after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected any consideration of racial diversity in admission policies.