California has become the fourth state to ban legacy admissions at private colleges, a practice that mostly benefits rich kids with connections who are, more often than not, white. The legislation, called AB 1780, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom said in a statement. “Which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”
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Proponents of AB 1780 say that prioritizing legacies contributes to systemic inequalities. The bill, they say, ensures that admissions criteria will not be influenced by wealth or personal connections. And it’s not just California politicians who believe this. A Pew research study found that 75 percent of Americans oppose using family ties in admissions decisions. It seems like this is one of the few political moves that pretty much everyone at any political stripe gets on board with.
A study by MIT and the University of Colorado-Boulder showed that 34.2 percent of legacy applicants were admitted compared to just 13.9% of non-legacy applicants, with the majority of legacy students being from wealthy backgrounds. This disparity prompted a small collection of states to act. California’s ban on legacy admissions follows similar laws in Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia.
California’s law, which will go into effect in September 2025, requires private colleges to report all of their admissions data so regulators can ensure that they comply. That means private colleges like Stanford and the University of Southern California, which have been giving preference to legacies for decades, will have to level the playing field if they want to abide by the law. According to the Stanford Daily, 13.6% of first-year students in the class of 2023 had “some form of existing connection to Stanford” through legacy or donor ties.
The bill does not impose financial penalties for violations of the law, however. It’s only designed to hold colleges accountable through transparency.
