Newsletter Signup
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
Here’s where Boston-area colleges stand on legacy admissions
Critics say it's time to stop giving legacy applicants a leg up, especially after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last month.
Across the country, politicians and colleges alike are reckoning with legacy admissions after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions last month — and Boston is no different.
Critics of the Supreme Court decision were quick to draw comparisons between affirmative action and the role that legacy status plays in the admissions process at many elite colleges. Considering whether an applicant’s parent or other close relative attended the school, they argued, amounts to “affirmative action for the rich” by favoring students with connections to donors and alumni.
Legacy Admissions:
Back in June, the court’s conservative majority found that race-conscious admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all citizens. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor countered that the decision would only “further [entrench] racial inequality in education.” Experts say the ruling will set back many colleges’ efforts to build more diverse student bodies.
Advertisement:
The case brought renewed attention to legacy status, an attribute the court left plenty of latitude for colleges to consider in admissions. Prominent political figures from progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Republican presidential hopeful and South Carolina senator Tim Scott denounced legacy admissions, slamming the policy for uplifting the already-privileged.
Admitting legacies boosts alumni engagement and helps encourage donations, colleges say, which they can reinvest into their financial aid programs. But a recent study found that legacy students are more likely to be white and generally richer than their non-legacy peers, leading critics to denounce the practice.
Wesleyan University made headlines last week for ending legacy admissions, which University President Michael Roth called “a sign of unfairness to the outside world” in an interview with the New York Times. Roth said the proportion of legacy admits at Wesleyan was “negligible” to begin with, but the university wanted to promote diversity in its student body rather than privilege the relatives of alumni.
Advertisement:
When it comes to Boston-area colleges and universities, their positions on the legacy preference run the gamut from disdainful, to ambiguous, to being the subject of a lawsuit and investigation into the practice.
Which schools consider legacy status?
Harvard’s legacy admissions policy is the subject of a civil rights inquiry by the U.S. Department of Education announced last week. The inquiry, in turn, was spurred by a lawsuit brought against Harvard by the Boston nonprofit Lawyers for Civil Rights on behalf of Black and Latino communities in New England who say the college’s legacy policy violates the Civil Rights Act and disadvantages applicants of color.
The suit cites data unearthed in the affirmative action case showing that 70% of alumni- and donor-related Harvard applicants are white, and that legacies are about six times more likely to be admitted to the elite school.
A spokesperson for Harvard told the Harvard Crimson the college had already been reviewing its admissions practices following the affirmative action decision, and that it remained committed “to welcoming students of extraordinary talent and promise who come from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences.”
Tufts also considers legacy status in undergraduate admissions — though both its faculty senate and student government have passed resolutions calling on the university to forgo the practice. Tufts’ executive director of media relations, Patrick Collins, told Boston.com that only about 6% of admitted undergrads are legacies.
Advertisement:
“Tufts’ academic and admissions leaders as well as the board of trustees will collectively be considering all aspects of our admissions process in light of the recent Supreme Court decision on admissions,” Collins wrote in an email. “At this point, there is no timetable on any decisions.”
Legacy status is also a factor at Boston College, where a spokesperson told the Boston Globe that about 14 percent of current students are children of alumni.
Williams College told the Globe that legacies “may get a small benefit,” but only if they progress on their own merit to the final stages of the admissions process.
Wellesley also considers legacy status, according to its Common Data Set — an annual report colleges issue about their admissions policies, student demographics, and more. A spokesperson told Boston.com that “at Wellesley, legacy students must go through the same application process — and must meet the same admission requirements — as all other students.”
As for Northeastern, a spokesperson told Boston.com the university “takes a holistic view of every applicant and legacy status is just [one of] a myriad of factors we consider.”
Advertisement:
Boston University also considers legacy status, according to its Common Data Set report.
Which schools don’t consider legacy status?
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is among the smaller crop of greater Boston schools that don’t look at legacy status at all when putting together their incoming class.
“We do not consider legacy/alumni relations in our process,” MIT’s undergraduate admissions site declares. “Selection is based on outstanding academic achievement as well as a strong match between the applicant and the Institute.” In a 2012 blog post titled “Just to be Clear: We Don’t Do Legacy” that’s easily accessible on the site, an MIT official calls the practice “fundamentally unfair.”
A spokesperson for Emerson College told Boston.com that it doesn’t consider legacy status, either.
Sorry. This form is no longer available.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com