Amherst College President Biddy Martin. Amherst has announced that it’s ending the practice of … [+]
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Amherst College announced today that it is ending its practice of giving admissions preference to legacies – the children of the college’s alumni. In addition to scrapping the policy, Amherst will increase its financial aid programs by $71 million per year, focusing that assistance on students from lower- and middle-income families.
Legacy students have traditionally represented about 11% of each entering class at Amherst.
“Now is the time to end this historic program that inadvertently limits educational opportunity by granting a preference to those whose parents are graduates of the College,” said Amherst President Biddy Martin.
In its announcement, Amherst, ranked 16th on Forbes’ top colleges list, claims to be the only liberal arts college in the country with a need-blind admission policy for both international and domestic students, as well as a financial aid program that meets students’ full financial need without using loans as part of its support package.
The new boost in financial aid will allow Amherst to provide institutional support for approximately 60% of its students. With the enhancement, students from 80% of U.S. households would be eligible to receive a scholarship that covers Amherst’s full tuition if they enroll.
Students from families earning less than the median U.S. household income will receive scholarships that cover full tuition, as well as the costs of housing and meals.
When the new aid kicks in next year, one in six members of the student body will see their grant aid increase by more than $5,000.
In addition, Amherst announced enhanced funding that will do the following:
- Provide high-need students additional support to help them purchase items like laptops and cover other expenses related to their education.
- Reduce expectations for work-study students to four hours per week from six hours.
- Establish a Student Emergency Fund to cover unexpected needs such as unforeseen medical costs, housing costs, and emergency travel.
The practice of giving admission preference to legacies has been criticized for years, by both higher education insiders and the general public. However, it gained new, highly visible, momentum following the recent Varsity Blues admissions cheating scandal and various legal challenges to the admissions practices at elite universities like Harvard.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, 56% of the nation’s top 250 institutions consider legacy in their admissions process. That’s a decline from 63% in 2004.
A 2018 survey of American college admissions officers revealed that 42% of admissions officers at private schools acknowledged legacy status is still a factor in admissions decisions. At public colleges, the corresponding figure was only 6%.
The history of legacy admissions has been traced to the 1920s, when some colleges began to use such quotas as a backdoor way of preventing Jewish, minority and immigrant students from attending.
Colleges that give a legacy preference often offer two justifications for the practice. First, they claim that they can raise more private donations from alumni if they give a leg up to their children. In turn, those funds can be used to help more lower-income students afford to attend. It’s the academy’s form of trickle-down.
Second, they argue that students of college-educated parents are more likely to persist and ultimately complete an undergraduate degree than students whose parents did not attend college. It’s higher ed’s survival of the well-heeled.
Amherst now joins several schools that have scrapped legacy preferences either in the name of fairness or in an attempt to increase access to their campuses. Johns Hopkins University made news last year when it stopped its policy of privileging legacies.
MIT, Caltech, Pomona College and the University of California have ended legacy preferences, although as the Varsity Blues scandal demonstrated, the practice can still persist in the hands of the unscrupulous. California passed a law that requires colleges to report to the government if they have a legacy admissions policy. And Colorado bars legacy admissions by its public colleges and universities.
Besides the appearance of fundamental unfairness, the practice of legacy admissions at America’s highly selective colleges is problematic because these schools accept so few qualified students to begin with. Further narrowing their admissions to children of alumni is difficult to justify while these institutions also simultaneously claim to be devoted to notions of merit, equality and social mobility.
In 2020, Amherst received more than 10,000 applications for admission. It accepted just 12% of those applicants. Its decisions to do away with legacy admissions may anger some alumni. It might even lead some to withhold a donation or discourage their children from applying. But Amherst is doing the right thing. More colleges need to follow its lead.
