Yes, legacy college admissions are still allowed after SCOTUS ruling

The decision has sparked conversation online about college admissions practices in general, including the controversial topic of legacy preference – when admission offices prioritize applicants whose family members attended the school.

“Let me get this straight. SCOTUS says colleges can’t take race into consideration during admission…But they can give preference to ‘legacies,’” professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich wrote in a viral tweet.

Other people on social media have also claimed that the Supreme Court decision still allows legacy college admissions.  

THE QUESTION

Are legacy college admissions still allowed following the Supreme Court’s ruling?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Yes, legacy college admissions are still allowed following the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina only ends the consideration of race in college admissions. 

The opinion did not prohibit college admissions factors that are not based on race, including legacy status, athlete status and socioeconomic status. 

Legacy admissions are defined as “formal and informal practices where schools give additional consideration to college applicants with a parent or other ancestor who’s an alumnus.” 

In other words, a student with one or more family members who attended the college may receive preferential treatment when they apply for admission.

A 2019 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found applicants at Harvard University that were recruited athletes, legacy students, those on the dean’s interest list, or children of faculty and staff were disproportionately white and came from higher income households than other applicants. The study also found that nearly 70% of legacy applicants were white.

The Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling doesn’t mention legacy status at all, Benjamin Barton, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, explained. That’s because legacy admissions are not technically based on race, he said.

“Today, I’m directing the Department of Education to analyze what practices help build more inclusive and diverse student bodies and what practices hold that back – practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity,” he said.

While colleges are still allowed to give preferential treatment to certain applicants based on their legacy status after the Supreme Court ruling, an education expert told VERIFY she believes the practice could be called into question. 

“I think schools are going to have a harder time justifying legacy and donor admissions in the face of this ruling,” Leelila Strogov, CEO of the college counseling company AtomicMind, said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.