California law bans college legacy and donor admissions, including at USC, Stanford
A new law banning legacy and donor admissions at private California universities, including USC and Stanford — among the handful of schools that admit a significant number of children of alumni or donors — was signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the action will promote equal educational opportunities.
“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom said in a statement. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”
The law affects a small number of private institutions in the state that consider family connections in admissions. Others that currently embrace the practice include Santa Clara University and Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd colleges.
The legislation takes effect Sept. 1, 2025, and requires universities to file an annual report beginning in June 2026 to the Legislature and Department of Justice that documents whether they are following the law or if they have given preference in admissions to students with alumni or donor ties. The report must compare legacy and donor admission rates to other admissions. The attorney general’s office then will have the option of pursuing charges against violators.
USC indicated Monday that it will comply with the law. In an email, the university said: “All admitted students meet our high academic standards through a contextualized holistic review that values each student’s lived experience, considers how they will contribute to the vibrancy of our campus, thrive in our community, benefit from a USC education and fulfill the commitments of our unifying values.”
Stanford “will be continuing to review its admissions policies” until the law is in effect, a spokeswoman said in response to emailed questions from The Times. She did not reply to a question about whether that meant the university might drop its consideration of legacy and donor status before the law went into effect.
Santa Clara is “committed to fair and equitable admissions practices in compliance with all state and federal requirements,” a spokeswoman said, adding that “legacy status alone has never been determinative of a student’s admission.”
A spokeswoman for Harvey Mudd said the college would be “happy to comply with this new legislation” and did “not anticipate it will have a significant impact on our admission process.”
A representative from Claremont McKenna did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
California State University and the University California do not give preference in admissions to children of alumni or donors. Some private colleges, including Pomona and Occidental, have discontinued the tradition in recent years.
The issue of preferential admission treatment based on family status and wealth attracted renewed opposition after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that race-based affirmative action in college applications is unconstitutional.
If signed by Gov. Newsom, the law would make California the latest state in a growing movement to make legacy admissions illegal.
Virginia and Illinois banned legacy admissions this year at their public colleges and universities. Colorado similarly targeted public institutions with its own ban three years ago.
Although the California law makes legacy and donor admissions illegal, it does not specify any punishment or fines for universities that violate it.
An earlier version of the bill, whose author was Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), called for strict penalties that would force colleges to pay amounts matching what they receive in Cal Grant payments. The grant program is the state’s main tuition subsidy for low-income students and amounts to millions of dollars at many schools.
“If we value diversity in higher education, we must level the playing field,” Ting said in a statement Monday. “That means making the college application process more fair and equitable. Hard work, good grades and a well-rounded background should earn you a spot in the incoming class — not the size of the check your family can write or who you’re related to.”
Despite financial penalties being removed from the legislation, Ting said in an interview he believed it would strongly promote “greater access” to higher education. He said he considered the law to be more significant than those elsewhere because of its scope in a state with several high-profile, selective institutions that currently consider family and donor status in admissions.
Ting noted that Maryland also banned such admissions this year, but its most selective school — Johns Hopkins University — already retired the practice several years ago.
A new California legislative effort to ban state financial aid to colleges and universities that give admissions preferences to children of alumni and donors could hit USC, Stanford.
Giving one example of the need for the law, Ting pointed to a 2023 Harvard study that found that legacy admissions were a significant part of why students from families in the top 1% of income — those making more than $611,000 a year — were five times more likely than less-affluent peers to gain admission to the eight Ivy League schools as well as the University of Chicago, Duke, MIT and Stanford.
An association that represents the five California schools that currently use legacy and donor admissions, the Assn. of Independent California Colleges and Universities, said Monday that its members were “compliance-driven” and would follow the law.
“As private institutions, we have been clear that we are uncomfortable with the state dictating admission practices in our institutions, and the precedent it sets. We have also been clear throughout the discussions on this bill that we welcome the opportunity to help ensure people have confidence in an admission process that is equitable for all,” said the group’s president, Kristen Soares.
Under a 2019 state law of which Ting also was the author, universities were required to provide an annual report to the state on legacy or donor admissions. The law — which expired in 2023 — was prompted by the Varsity Blues scandal, which revealed pay-for-play admissions for children of celebrities and other wealthy Americans at elite U.S. schools.
In 2023, USC said it offered admission to 1,791 undergraduate applicants who were relatives of donors or alumni, or about 14.5% of admitted students. At Stanford, the number was 295, which represented about 13.6% of admitted students.
At Santa Clara University, it was 38. Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd colleges each reported offering admission to 15 students who had legacy or donor connections.
In their 2023 reports, each of the five institutions said that admitted students with legacy and donor connections met their admissions standards.
Dozens of other private universities that submitted information to the Assn. of Independent California Colleges and Universities, which sends its data to Sacramento, reported that alumni or donor ties were not considered in any of their applicant evaluations.
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