California Bans Donor Preferences, Legacy Admissions at Private Colleges

Students walk on the campus at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 11, 2020. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Monday that prohibits private, nonprofit colleges from factoring in a student’s connections to alumni or donors in their admissions process.

The legislation will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2025, making California the fifth state in the nation to ban legacy admissions, and the second, following Maryland, to extend this ban to private colleges. Colorado, Illinois, and Virginia have banned legacy admissions in public colleges.

Legacy admissions refers to colleges boosting the odds of admission because the student is related to an alumnus, usually a parent or grandparent.

Newsom said in a statement on Sept. 30 that the bill, AB 1780, aims to ensure that private colleges in California admit students based on their merit rather than their personal connections to alumni or donors.

“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” the Democratic governor said. “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 bill mandates that all private colleges and universities in California submit an annual report to the Legislature and the Department of Justice to disclose their compliance.

Private colleges and universities found to be in violation of the legislation will have their names published on the department’s website in the next fiscal year, according to the bill.

California Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), who introduced the bill, thanked the governor for signing the bill and emphasized the need to ensure a “fair and equitable” college application process.

“Hard work, good grades, and a well-rounded background should earn you a spot in the incoming class—not the size of the check your family can write or who you’re related to,” Ting said in a statement.

The state’s public universities have long abandoned legacy and donor preferences in the admissions process. The University of California eliminated legacy preferences in 1998, according to the governor’s office.

The practice of legacy admissions has come under scrutiny after the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action policies at U.S. colleges and universities last year. The ruling was based on two separate lawsuits brought by the advocacy group Students for Fair Admission (SFFA) against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In November 2023, Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced an amendment to the Higher Education Act that would ban colleges and universities from giving “preferential treatment” in the admissions process based on the applicant’s relationship to alumni or donors.

A 2022 report by Education Reform Now found that more than 100 colleges and universities in the United States have ended legacy admissions since 2015, but 787 colleges were still using the practice as of 2020.

According to a 2022 Pew Research Institute poll, 75 percent of Americans believed legacy admissions should not be a factor in admissions, up slightly from 68 percent in 2019.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.