Bill would end early, legacy admissions at NY colleges, universities
ALBANY – State lawmakers are eyeing a ban on the practice of early admission to colleges and universities as the legislative session nears its end, with progressives claiming the practice is racist.
Supporters of a bill that would outlaw early admission — in which prospective students agree to attend their top-choice college in exchange for acceptance earlier in the admission cycle — as well as legacy admissions say both practices disproportionately help white and wealthy students get into prestigious schools like Columbia, NYU, and Cornell.
“The bill seeks to eliminate structural barriers created by legacy and early admissions policies which tend to reward connected and affluent white students and discriminate against students of color and first-generation students like myself,” Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the bill in her chamber, said Monday.
Supporters of the legislation aim to get it passed by leveraging opposition to a potential Supreme Court ruling in cases challenging race-based admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
“If the Supreme Court is not going to allow us to use affirmative action to help improve economic and racial diversity on college campuses,” state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the bill in his chamber, said Monday, “then we, the state of New York, will not allow the same institutions to use affirmative action for privileged students in picking and choosing which children or grandchildren of their alumni they will choose.”
Supporters of the Albany effort say early admissions are problematic because they require students to commit to a school before they know what financial aid they might get, a situation that data suggests helps white students who tend to be wealthier than those from other groups.
“Applying early decision requires two things. It requires college admissions know-how and money, which may be why students attending private high schools are more than three times more likely than public high school students to apply early decisions,” Gounardes said, referring to a 2022 study by the advocacy group Education Reform Now.
Roughly two-thirds of private school students in New York City are white, according to a 2020 Manhattan Institute analysis.
Meanwhile, most of the top universities in the country give some advantage to family members of alumni, who are approximately 45% more likely to win admission compared to non-legacy students with similar qualifications, according to the Century Foundation.
“At a time when universities are seeking to diversify by race and socioeconomic status, legacy preferences, on average, negatively impact minority and low-income students,” Richard Kahlenberg, then a senior fellow at the think tank, wrote in a 2018 letter to Congress.
And while legacy admissions are race-neutral on their face, Kahlenberg wrote at the time, they have roots in policies that replaced admission quotas for groups like Jews.
Students like Columbia University freshman Jaylen Adams, 18, are getting behind the effort even though their own struggles with college admissions are behind them.
Adams told The Post on Monday that she backed Walker and Gounardes’ bill in honor of her own mother, the daughter of an immigrant, who Adams said could have accomplished much more if college admissions had been fairer in the past.
“I broke that barrier and I don’t want other people to have to break that barrier either,” Adams said. “I think if you start to only think about your blood now, then you’re not really united in what we’re all united in – and that’s of course, justice, and making sure that we all have the same opportunities and benefits that everyone has.”
