- Wesleyan University has ended legacy admissions, the practice of favoring applicants related to alumni.
- The university's president told The New York Times the practice is "embarrassing" and an "unearned privilege."
Wesleyan University will no longer take part in legacy admissions — the practice of favoring applicants whose parents or grandparents are alumni — following nationwide pushback against the policy.
Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan, told The New York Times that it is "an embarrassing fact" for the applicant when the admissions office favors them because their relative graduated from the school. Roth also said he thinks most Wesleyan alumni will approve of the decision and want the school "to be a place that doesn't give unearned privileges to applicants."
Wesleyan joins other elite schools, like Johns Hopkins and MIT, in rejecting the practice.
The end of legacy admissions at Wesleyan comes after the Supreme Court's decision last month to end affirmative action, the practice of considering an applicant's race in college admissions. The ruling prompted immediate backlash, even prompting one civil rights group to file a complaint against Harvard University for their donor and legacy admissions preferences, arguing the practices "systematically disadvantage students of color, including Black, Latinx, and Asian Americans."
Data from Harvard's admissions office indicates about 70% of applicants related to donors or alumni are white, Insider previously reported. Meanwhile, donor-related applicants were almost seven times more likely to be admitted, whereas legacy applicants were nearly six times more likely, Insider reported.
Proponents of donor and legacy admissions often argue the practice encourages donations from alumni and helps the school fund financial aid for students who need it. However, a Pew Research Center study showed 75% of participants disapproved of legacy admissions. And in states that previously banned affirmative action, such as California, admissions data demonstrates there was a significant drop in the number of students of color enrolling in public universities.