- 69% of students say the legacy admissions process is not fair, and 58% of legacy students agree.
- Affirmative action policies are more popular, with 61% of students saying the affirmative action admissions process is fair.
- Just 10% of students say legacy status should trump GPA if two college applications are otherwise completely equal.
For the last century, college admissions officers have given preferential treatment to prospective students with a family member who attended the same university. But today the majority of college students take issue with the practice.
A new survey of 1,500 undergraduates finds that almost 7 in 10 (69%) say the legacy admissions process that gives preference to relatives of alumni is not fair, while 29% say it is fair. By comparison, about one-third (35%) of students say college admissions in general are not fair.
Although students who are not from a legacy family are more likely than those who are to say legacy admissions are unfair (71% vs. 58%), less than half of legacy students think the process is fair (41%).
Students also overwhelmingly reject the admissions process that gives preference to applicants whose families have donated to the university. Eight in 10 (80%) students overall say the process is not fair, compared to 19% who say it is. Legacy students are more likely than non-legacy students to say it is fair (28% vs. 18%), but those who favor the system are still in the minority.
“Both my parents went to Clemson and donate money to the school,” a Clemson University student says. “I also met the requirements to get in, but sometimes I do wonder if the fact [that] I’m a legacy student affected my admission decision in any way.”
Both types of legacy admissions are less popular than affirmative action policies that give special consideration to prospective minority students. Six in 10 (61%) students say the affirmative action admissions process is fair, compared to 38% who disagree.
College Students Find Affirmative Action More Fair than Legacy Admissions
How fair are the following admissions processes?
Affirmative action is more polarizing along party lines, however, and college Democrats are far more likely than college Republicans to consider affirmative action policies fair (82% vs. 24%). Meanwhile, Democrats are less likely to say legacy admissions for children of alumni are equitable (21% vs. 40%).
There is broad agreement among students from all backgrounds that high school GPA should hold more weight in college admissions than family history. Almost 9 in 10 (89%) students say applicants’ high school GPA should hold more weight if two college applications are completely equal except for GPA and legacy status. Just 10% say legacy status should trump GPA.
Two-thirds (66%) of students say family tradition did not impact their choices at all when selecting the list of colleges and universities they applied to. But non-legacy students are more than twice as likely as legacy students to say family tradition did not impact their decision at all (70% vs. 31%). While legacy students are more likely to say their family history had an impact, few say it impacted them a great deal (13%).
Almost One-Third of Legacy Students Say Family History Had No Impact on Their College Decision
How much did family tradition impact your choices when selecting the list of colleges and universities you applied to?
As discussions around legacy admissions move into the national spotlight, only about one-quarter (27%) of legacy students would like to see their children be given admission preferences to their college, compared to 20% of non-legacy students. There is a larger gender gap, however. Male students are almost twice as likely as their female classmates to say that they would like their children to be given admission preferences to their college one day (29% vs. 17%).
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Methodology: This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of 1,500 full-time and part-time students attending four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
