Roaming Reporter: New ban against legacy and donor admissions

Katie Ngo

By Katie Ngo

On September 30, Gavin Newsom signed a bill that bans legacy and donor preferences in admissions. 

While California public universities already exclude legacy and donor preferences in their admissions, this bill would extend it to private, nonprofit universities, including Stanford and USC. This means a student’s connection to a donor or alumnus of a university, such as a parent who graduated from that university, would not play a factor in their admissions decision. 

Five Barons shared their opinions about the new law.

Photos by Kailyn Huynh.

“I think people are just trying to fix problems that they see as problems that really aren’t and don’t need fixing,” sophomore Olivia Heydorn said.
“This policy on donors is not as effective, not as impactful, [or] influential on college,” senior Derek Ngo said.
“I feel like it makes admissions more fair because I don’t think that just because a parent is smart that the child will be just as smart. I think they should have to work just as hard as everybody else to get into a college,” senior Abby Middlebrooks said.
“I think we live in a meritocracy and like, if you’re a good person, a good student, you should be rewarded for that, and people who don’t deserve that should be rewarded for that,” sophomore Branson Dang said.

“I think that this ban is good because it makes less bias for people who are obviously if their parents could be alumni for Ivy League colleges, it makes the playing field more fair for more people than just the 1 percent,” sophomore Sophia Nguyen said.

About Katie Ngo

View all posts by Katie Ngo →

You may like these posts