The future of legacy admissions

SocratesPost is always on the frontlines scouring the news for relevant updates in the college admissions landscape. We look for anything that can help shape our understanding of the latest trends in admissions and help our readers see the direction in which we’re moving.

Questions we explored this week:

  • This elite school system got caught making "exceptions" to admit under-qualified students. Which one?
  • Goodbye, again! These four colleges dropped test score requirements.
  • What's the future of legacy admissions? Here's what one presidential candidate says.

February 24, 2020 — University of California

A recent audit found that the University of California, which received 840k apps last year, admitted about 2% of students “by exception.” This means they did not meet minimum criteria. While this is allowed to an extent, the UC admissions office did not document their reasoning. Data showed that international, black, and Pacific Islander students and athletes benefitted most from this.

What does this mean? A large chunk of recruited athletes were black students who didn’t meet admissions requirements. The UC believes that exceptional acceptances level the playing field, but with the growing concern following the recent college admission fraud, colleges will want to better document their admissions processes and reasons for decisions.

Read more here.

February 24, 2020 — Bellarmine, Clarkson, Suffolk, Univ. of St. Thomas

While Clarkson and University of St. Thomas have adopted completely test-optional policies, Bellarmine and Suffolk will still require tests from homeschooled and non-traditional students (e.g. at Bellarmine, this includes international students who do not speak English regularly).

What does this mean? More universities are catching on to the irrelevance of SAT and ACT scores, citing a desire to level the playing field and remove measures that do not accurately predict college success. We may see a gradual decline in growth of test prep companies and publishers.

Read more here.

February 24, 2020 — Eliminated

Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Michael Bloomberg has proposed ending legacy admissions so that private colleges and universities do not give preferential treatment to the children of alums. His plan stands out from that of his competitors who have not spoken out about legacy admissions. Under Bloomberg’s proposal, however, wealthy donors can still get preference. *This is not an endorsement of Michael Bloomberg.

What does this mean? The college admissions scandal has spotlighted the unfair privileges of the owning class — to the point that the government has stepped in and will continue stepping in to democratize the admission process.

Read more here.

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