Legacy Admissions in 2026: Which Colleges Still Consider It, Which Ended It, and the State Laws

Which colleges still consider legacy status for fall 2027 applicants?

A family can check two things: what the college says about family ties on its own admissions pages, and item C7 of its Common Data Set (CDS). The statements below are the clearest we found on official pages for students applying now for fall 2027 entry.

Princeton names a mother, father, stepmother or stepfather, and Harvard names the children of Harvard College alumni. Neither statement mentions grandparents, siblings or graduate degrees, and neither gives the size of the plus. Both frame the tie as a factor among applicants who are already similarly qualified. Our Harvard legacy admissions guide covers Harvard in more detail.

How can a family check the Common Data Set for legacy?

Item C7 of the CDS asks each college to rate the “Relative importance of each of the following academic and nonacademic factors” in first-year admission, with four columns: “Very Important”, “Important”, “Considered” and “Not Considered”. One of the nonacademic rows is “Alumni/ae relation” (Harvard CDS 2025-26, item C7). For this guide we tried to read that row in the latest CDS for 11 selective colleges. In every file we tried, the mark could not be matched to its column in the PDF text, or the file did not load, so we do not publish a table of ratings here; a family can read the row in the PDF of each college it is considering.

The CDS can also be wrong. MIT says that between 2004 and 2008 its CDS “erroneously reported that MIT Admissions offered a legacy preference”, that it has not offered one “in at least the last half century, and likely longer”, and that the archival files have since been corrected and annotated (MIT Admissions blog, update of October 10, 2023). In our view, when the CDS and an admissions page disagree, the written statement on the admissions page is the better guide, and a direct question to the admissions office settles it.

How much does legacy status help an applicant?

None of the colleges in this guide publishes a legacy admit rate on the pages we read. The most detailed public record we know of is the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case. The federal district court in Massachusetts found in its September 30, 2019 decision that legacy applicants, along with applicants on the dean’s or director’s interest lists and children of faculty and staff, “obtain an admissions tip that is primarily or exclusively a product of family circumstances”. The court also described a 2013 memo from Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research as finding that “The variables with the largest effects on the probability of admission are athletic rating, personal rating, and legacy status” (district court findings, 2019).

The court opinions describe legacy as a tip without giving its size, in the sections we were able to read. The First Circuit wrote in November 2020 that “ALDC applicants make up less than 5% of applicants to Harvard but around 30% of the applicants admitted each year” (First Circuit opinion, 2020). ALDC covers recruited athletes, legacies, applicants on the dean’s interest list and children of faculty or staff. In our view, that gap mixes the tip with the strength of the applicants in those groups, so it does not measure how much a legacy tie alone helps. In our experience, a legacy tie helps a strong application at the margin and does not make up for a weak one.

Which colleges have ended legacy preferences or say they do not use them?

• Amherst. On October 20, 2021, Amherst announced that “it is ending the longstanding practice of a legacy admission preference”, alongside more financial aid (Amherst College news).
• Occidental. In a July 26, 2023 message, President Elam wrote, “We will formalize our approach to legacy admission”, and said that Occidental would stop asking applicants about alumni relationships (Occidental).
• Johns Hopkins. The admissions FAQ says that “legacy has no bearing on the admissions process.” Johns Hopkins Magazine reported in spring 2020 that “For the freshman class entering in 2014, the university tested a policy to remove consideration of legacy status in admissions decisions,” and that the university then moved to formalize the decision (Johns Hopkins FAQ; Johns Hopkins Magazine).
• MIT. MIT states that it does not consider legacy or alumni relations (MIT Admissions) and says it has not offered a legacy preference in at least 50 years (MIT Admissions blog).
• University of Virginia. UVA says, “We do not have check boxes for race or UVA family affiliation on our application”, and that family history with UVA is not a factor (UVA admission).

Wesleyan announced on July 19, 2023 that it would “formally end admission preference” for legacy applicants (Wesleyan). We did not find a statement on legacy on the Carnegie Mellon admissions pages we checked. Public colleges in Colorado, Illinois, Virginia and Maryland, and private colleges that receive Maryland State funds, are covered by the state laws below. For how legacy, donor and other special categories work at the Ivy League schools, see our guide to legacy, donor and ALDC preferences.

Which states ban legacy preferences in college admissions?

The laws differ in scope. Colorado bars legacy preferences at state-supported colleges and lets them ask about family ties “in order to collect data.” Virginia says that “No public institution of higher education shall provide any manner of preferential treatment in the admissions decision” for legacy status or a family tie to a donor. Illinois says a public institution “may not consider an applicant’s legacy status or the applicant’s familial relationship to any past, current, or prospective donor” (Illinois P.A. 103-0877). Maryland covers “institutions of higher education that receive State funds” and also allows questions about family ties for data collection; its Fiscal and Policy Note says “Private nonprofit institutions that receive State funding are also subject to the requirements of the bill” (Maryland Department of Legislative Services).

California’s law is written for private colleges. Its definition of a legacy preference includes “asking an applicant to indicate where their relatives attended college” and using that answer in the admissions file, though collecting the data for other purposes is allowed. Covered colleges must report on compliance to the Legislature and the Department of Justice “on or before June 30, 2026, and annually thereafter”, and the Department of Justice posts the names of colleges that violate the law. The law text states no monetary penalty (AB 1780). In Massachusetts, H.4406 was reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Higher Education on August 28, 2025 and sent to House Ways and Means, and S.2534 was sent to Senate Ways and Means on June 23, 2025; neither page shows later action.

Why do some colleges keep legacy preferences and others end them?

The Harvard case shows the argument for keeping them. As the First Circuit summarized it, a Harvard committee (the Smith Committee) concluded that preferring legacy applicants “helps to cement strong bonds between the university and its alumni” and “encourages alumni to donate their time and money to support Harvard.” The committee also “found that eliminating these admissions practices resulted in negligible, and sometimes negative, changes to diversity”, referring to the tips for ALDC applicants and to deferred admission (First Circuit, 2020).

Amherst made the opposite case when it ended its preference. President Biddy Martin said, “Now is the time to end this historic program that inadvertently limits educational opportunity” (Amherst College news, 2021). The district court in the Harvard case also noted that “ALDCs are disproportionately white”, with 8% of white applicants in the ALDC group against 2.7% of African American, 2.2% of Hispanic and 2% of Asian American applicants (district court, 2019). The syllabus of the 2023 Supreme Court decision in the same case, which summarizes the holding, states that “Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”, a ruling about race; Harvard still describes an additional look for alumni children on its FAQ page (Supreme Court opinion, June 29, 2023).

How should legacy families plan their applications?

• Start with the words of each college. Read the admissions FAQ and the C7 row of the CDS for every school on the list, and note which family members the college names.
• Save the early application for the first choice. In our view, a legacy tie is not by itself a reason to use a binding Early Decision or a Restrictive Early Action slot. Our Early Decision II guide covers a second binding round for students deferred or denied in December.
• Report family ties accurately and let the essays stand on their own. In our experience, a family connection belongs in a supplemental essay when it explains a real interest in the school; see our Why Us essay guide and Common App essay guide.
• Build a balanced list. In our view, a legacy tie at one school does nothing for the rest of the list. Our guides to how many colleges to apply to and reach, match and safety schools explain how.
• Keep aid separate. Harvard says that “Your financial need and your aid application will never affect your chance of being admitted to Harvard” (Harvard, how aid works). Our need-blind versus need-aware guide explains how other colleges differ.

The view of Oriel Admissions is that a legacy tie can matter at the colleges that still weigh it, but no college publishes its size, so the application should be built as if the tie did not exist. Families who start planning early can use our college admissions timeline to set the order of testing, essays and early deadlines.

Frequently Asked Questions About Legacy Admissions

Sources: Harvard College, FAQ on relatives who attended Harvard, Harvard College, How Aid Works, Harvard Common Data Set 2025-2026, Princeton Undergraduate Admission, FAQs, Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions, FAQ, MIT Admissions, application process, MIT Admissions blog, legacy post of June 25, 2012, updated October 10, 2023, Amherst College, news release, October 20, 2021, Occidental College, Formally Ending Legacy Admission and Next Steps, July 26, 2023, University of Virginia Admission, application review process, Colorado General Assembly, HB21-1173, Code of Virginia, section 23.1-407.2, Virginia Legislative Information System, HB 48 (2024), Maryland General Assembly, HB0004 (2024), Maryland Department of Legislative Services, HB 4 Fiscal and Policy Note, Illinois General Assembly, Public Act 103-0877, Wesleyan University, July 19, 2023, Johns Hopkins Magazine, spring 2020, California Legislative Information, AB 1780 (2024), Massachusetts Legislature, H.4406, Massachusetts Legislature, S.2534, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, September 30, 2019, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, opinion of November 12, 2020, Supreme Court of the United States, opinion of June 29, 2023. All read October 27, 2026.

About Oriel Admissions

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