California has become the fourth state to ban legacy admissions in the college application process, a practice that has long been criticized as favoring white or wealthy students based on their familial alumni connections.
“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday statement. “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 decision affects private and nonprofit universities. The University of California system eliminated legacy admission preferences in 1998, according to Newsom’s office.
The comment about the Universiry of California having its most diverse class leaves out some colleges saw a 40% drop in black and latino students that didn’t get close to pre Affirmative Action numbers for almost 20 years.
The ban on legacy admissions will ultimately change very little in my opinion as the the majority of legacy candidates come from wealthy families with ties to the university. They’ll just call a legacy candidate something else because we all know this won’t really be enforced.
You really want to make higher education fair you have to take money out of it and force institutions to take in candidates fairly.