California bans legacy admissions at private colleges and universities
California is banning legacy admissions at private colleges and universities, ensuring that some of the country’s most selective schools will not favor applicants with familial or monetary connections to the schools.
California is banning legacy admissions at private colleges and universities, ensuring that some of the country’s most selective schools will not favor applicants with familial or monetary connections to the schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed AB 1780 into law, prohibiting legacy and donor preferences in admissions at private, nonprofit institutions. The new rule will go into effect in the fall of 2025. Schools including Stanford University, the University of Southern California and Santa Clara University will now join the California State University system and other public institutions in the state that have long-banned legacy preferences.
“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom said in a news release announcing the decision. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”
The news comes more than a year after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard, sharply limiting colleges and universities from considering race in admission.
Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote the bill, has been advocating for the end of legacy admissions in the state since the 2019 college admissions scandal — in which dozens of people, including Hollywood actors, took part in a college entrance exam cheating scheme. He attributed the passage of AB 1780 to the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling.
Rating: 5