Bipartisan Congress aims to defund colleges over legacy admissions

Time could finally be up for legacy admissions, thanks to a bipartisan bill being considered on Capitol Hill.

“The fact that your parents or grandparents happened to have a sheepskin [diploma] from a particular college on the wall should in no way influence your ability to get into that college,” Senator Todd Young told me.

Young is a co-sponsor of the MERIT Act (Merit-Based Educational Reforms and Institutional Transparency) introduced in Congress last November. The legislation would ban colleges and universities that receive federal funding from considering applicants’ legacy status in the admissions process.

It’s about time that hard work, determination and excellence are valued over wealth, privilege and special considerations in the admissions office.

“My motivation was to restore what most Americans believe in: meritocracy — work hard, play by the rules, develop your talents, and you ought to be able to get ahead,” Young said.

The Indiana senator, who is a Republican, is co-sponsoring the bill with Democrat Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.

“This is non-ideological, nonpartisan and highly popular among the American people,” Young said. “Republicans, Democrats, independents, liberals, conservatives — all agree with the notion that rich people shouldn’t be able to buy their kids’ and grandkids’ [way] into elite colleges.”

The MERIT Act would amend the Higher Education Act, which provides federal money to colleges and universities, by changing the accreditation standards. It would ban any “preferential treatment” in the admissions process in order to receive federal funds.

Scrutiny of legacy admissions practices was renewed last year, when the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions.

If race can’t be considered in the admission process, why should other factors out of an applicant’s control — like how much money your family has or who your parents are — play a role? Legacy admissions is, effectively, affirmative action for the privileged.

Although Young, who himself is a graduate of the highly selective University of Chicago, had already taken an interest in eliminating legacy admissions before the Supreme Court ruling this June, he says the judgment inspired him to introduce the bill.

“I already decided that this was a wrong that needed to be righted, and I felt like there was an opportunity for success in this area… after the Supreme Court decision,” he said.

Legacy admissions is widespread in academia. According to Education Reform Now, about half of schools considered legacy status in the admission process as of 2020. And the practice is most common at elite colleges — 80% of them consider legacy status

Harvard has come under particular scrutiny for its practices, and rightfully so.

A 2019 analysis of Harvard’s admissions data from 2009 to 2014 by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals just how much of a leg up connected applicants have in the admissions process at elite universities.

While the overall admissions rate at Harvard was just 6%, 33.6% of legacies were accepted and 42.2% of those on an “interest list,” which often denotes a relationship to a donor, got in.

The researchers also found that 43% of white students at Harvard were legacies, children of faculty, donor relatives or recruited athletes — and that 3 in 4 of those students would likely not have been otherwise accepted.

“”There’s a sense that so many of our institutions are rigged in favor of entrenched interests,” Young said. “And in this case, the entrenched interests would be wealthier individuals who are effectively writing checks to their alma maters to get their children, grandchildren or friends of the family in.

“They’re basically overriding considerations of merit,” he added.

If the MERIT Act takes effect, it would jeopardize Harvard’s federal funding. Despite having a $50 billion endowment, the university received $625 million in federal dollars in 2021 — representing two-thirds of its sponsored revenue for the year.

But the tides are turning. Education Reform Now also found that 100 schools eliminated legacy admissions considerations between 2015 and 2022.

Highly selective schools like Johns Hopkins, Amherst College and Wesleyan University have nixed the practice. And MIT has never considered legacy status or donor relationships in its admissions process.

Local lawmakers across the country have also taken aim at legacy admissions.

The practice was already banned at Colorado public colleges in 2021. Here in New York, Democrat State Senator Andrew Gounardes introduced a fair college admissions act last year, which is currently in committee in the senate.

Now, Young and Kaine are looking to realize those efforts at the federal effort.

“I’ve always been riled up by injustice, especially barriers to people realizing their full human potential and biases that undermine incentives to work hard,” Young said of his personal motivation to sponsor the MERIT Bill.

I hope they succeed. The only way to restore faith to higher education is by restoring meritocracy on campus.