Ending Legacy Admissions Would Be a Win for Your Test-Prep Business
Legacy admissions have long been awarded to those who have been lucky enough to be born into a reserved spot in some of the nation’s leading colleges. And I say “lucky enough” because many of these students are accepted to said colleges based on just that - luck.
In some cases, merit has absolutely nothing to do with how legacy students are granted admission to these top-ranking schools; they are admitted based on their relation to alumni and/or donors.
Recently, there has been a growing call-to-action to stop this practice and end legacy admissions across the board.
The anti-affirmative action group, Students For Fair Admissions in their case, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard University, found that legacy applicants have an admittance rate of about 5 times higher than non-legacy applicants.
Of even greater concern, Duke University’s professor Peter S. Arcidiacono has found that over 21.5% of all white college admissions at Harvard are legacy admits; a fact that compounds the issue of inequality in the practice of legacy admissions.
The call to end preferential treatment for legacy applicants is not a new plea among those fighting to add more equality into the college acceptance process.
With Johns Hopkins University and all of Colorado’s public colleges barring legacy status as a qualifying factor when deciding to admit students (as well as some high-profile cases like the aforementioned Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard University), that plea has gained traction and momentum.
The spotlight now turns on the schools - both public and private - that continue to ignore the injustice of continuing legacy admissions. Should outlawing the practice continue to gain more widespread adoption, merit-based metrics like test scores, grades, and personal statements will rightfully become even more important. In the process, your test-prep business will have the opportunity to open the door to higher education for even more students.
Colleges Ending Legacy Admissions
While there are many top-ranking schools, such as MIT and CalTech, that have never used legacy admissions, the recent push to end the practice has led to a new wave of colleges dropping and banning such traditions.
Johns Hopkins University made the announcement in 2019 that it had put an end to legacy admissions back in 2014 - a decision that started with conversations to stop admittance based on legacy and to start diversifying their student body back in 2012.
According to JHU’s President Ronald J. Daniels, ending preferential treatment for families of alumni and donors has given talented and deserving students opportunities based on merit and equality. He stated,
“Ending legacy preferences is but one piece of our university’s work to make a Johns Hopkins education accessible to all talented students, to mitigate the burdens of debt, and to ensure that students receive the supports and services that will help them thrive. These efforts are not a panacea for the structural inequities that plague our society. But they are necessary if American universities are truly to fulfill their democratic promise to be ladders of mobility for all.”
Since dropping legacy admissions, David Phillips, vice provost for admissions and financial aid at JHU noted,
“We have higher proportions of first-generation students, of students from limited-income backgrounds. And we're hearing from faculty that the debate and engagement within the classroom is more robust and more impactful to the students' learning process.”
It’s not just individual schools taking this bold step to move away from legacy admissions practices. Colorado is the first state to ban legacy admissions for all public universities. The ban has been made effective starting with the August 1, 2021 application cycle.
Many of the public universities in Colorado had already dropped the practice of legacy admissions or had never used it; however, this ban has created new opportunities at schools like the Colorado School of Mines - by many accounts, the most difficult school in Colorado to get accepted to.
Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis noted,
“In Colorado, the legacy admission ban was largely prompted by a desire to increase college-going among low-income and Hispanic high school graduates, who now enroll at rates about a third lower than White and middle- and higher-income students. This law makes sure that just because your parent or grandparent went to one of our colleges in Colorado, that doesn’t mean that you automatically get in ... Because that could take the spot from somebody who is more worthy of that spot.”
The Unfairness of a Legacy Admissions Advantage
The unfairness of legacy admissions is an obvious one for most: it gives an advantage to students who already have one.
It is not surprising that most legacy admits are a.) wealthy and b.) white - which means that they have already been born into a position of privilege. These students typically have families that can support them financially, no matter where they choose to study. These families also traditionally have access to better test preparation, private tutors, and other support systems that may be financially out of reach for many students. It can be unfair that they would then get additional, automatic benefits simply because of their family history with a school.
For non-legacy, high-achieving students from low- and middle-class families to have to step aside and have their spot taken by a legacy admit is particularly tough to accept.
Ironically enough, billionaire Michael Bloomberg was outspoken on this issue as part of his 2020 presidential bid, stating,
“The wealthy parents who have been convicted of paying a fixer to get their children into top colleges, through bribes or deception, have pulled the curtain back on a larger problem in American life. Giving preference to legacy applicants is part of a flawed higher education system that too often benefits wealthy, white students. Their advantage comes at the expense of qualified students who are minority, low-income or middle class and whose parents did not attend college.”
(In case you need a refresher on The College Admissions Bribery Scandal, click here.)
It should be really difficult to argue with that diagnosis when history, research, and data support it.
Unfortunately, there’s a continued “misconception” by universities that have chosen to ignore the facts and the continued calls for a more fair shake for all applicants.
Brown University’s Dean of Admission Logan Powell has argued against ending legacy admissions. His defense claims that ending legacy admissions would minimize the university’s efforts to diversify and “increase access for underrepresented groups on campus.”
Other colleges and universities, which include many of the Ivies, believe that legacy admissions are continuing the tradition of admitting generation after generation of loyal students who then become loyal alumni, and thus, loyal donors.
To make matters worse, a study conducted in 2004 by Princeton University’s Thomas J. Espenshade and Chang Y. Chung found that the preference given to legacy admits is equivalent to 160 points on the SAT® (out of 1600) and 5 points on the ACT® (out of 36). Imagine what an advantage those extra points would make for any college applicant. Now remember that these advantages are given to students based solely on their circumstances of birth.
You tell me - is this practice fair?
Standardized Admissions Tests Offer a Much Fairer Way of Assessing Student Potential Than Legacy Status
It is well-known that ACT® and SAT® scores can help under-represented students stand out when it comes to college admittance.
Unlike legacy admissions, standardized admission tests provide metrics that can level the playing field. Students who work hard and put in the time and effort during test prep can reap the harvest of the college application season.
When talking to your clients or taking on new ones, it’s important to highlight the value in standardized admissions test scores when applying to colleges.
In February 2020, The University of California sought to prove exactly that. The university formed and charged a task force with testing whether or not UC and its students are:
“best served by our current testing practices, a modification of our current practices, another testing approach altogether, or perhaps even no testing at all. This study reviewed literature about the validity of the ACT® and SAT® and examined the relationship between these tests and college preparation of UC California resident applicants and college performance of enrolled students at UC.”
The UC’s Standardized Testing Task Force reported:
ACT® and SAT® scores and high school GPA have a moderate correlation
ACT® and SAT® scores have a strong correlation with:
college freshman GPA
college graduation GPA
first-year of college retention
college graduation
The results of their evaluation are a boon to the test-prep industry and supporters of standardized admissions tests.
Ultimately, the reason why standardized admissions tests are so important for college admissions is because they serve as an accurate measurement of college-readiness skills. The ACT® and SAT® tests accurately assess students’ competence in reading, writing, math (ACT® and SAT®), and science (ACT® only). These are skills that all students require for collegiate success.
With this in mind, colleges and universities that include standardized test scores as part of their admissions assessments are demonstrating a commitment to using merit and data in making just and unbiased decisions.
For those students who have chosen to apply to “test optional” schools, it is important for you to remind them that “test optional” schools don’t ignore test scores. On the contrary, test scores help provide a more complete picture of an applicant and give useful context to admissions counselors who must compare students from different schools, regions, and backgrounds. A student who submits a strong score on the ACT® or SAT® will have the advantage over other students. That display of merit, especially for a “test optional” school, can make a student stand apart from the rest.
In essence, standardized admissions tests are one of the few unbiased ways to assess college-readiness in a college candidate. After all, unlike legacy status, the ACT® and SAT® require students to actually perform.
To help your students get the most out of their test-prep performance, contact us for a free demo of our 100% white-label, custom-branded test-prep curriculum. Our program offers a mix of print and digital materials that empower you and your tutors to create a differentiated and tailored test-prep experience for each of your students. Click the link below to see for yourself how Clear Choice can help you take your test-prep experience and brand to the next level.
