Legacy admissions has collapsed nationally over the past decade — but at the most selective schools, more than half still give alumni children a boost.
Inside Higher Ed reported on a new analysis by researcher James Murphy of more than 1,700 four-year colleges' admissions policies, tracking legacy preference use since 2015. Nationally, the practice has cratered: about half of colleges considered legacy status in 2015, versus just 23% in 2024. Part of that decline is legislative — Virginia, Illinois, and Maryland now ban legacy preferences at public colleges, Maryland bans it at private ones too, and California bans it at private colleges statewide.
But the decline is nowhere near even. Among the 89 colleges that admit 25% of applicants or fewer, 57% still weigh legacy status — down only modestly from a decade ago. The rate drops to 33% at colleges admitting between 26% and 50% of applicants, and 27% at those admitting 51–75%. Legacy preferences are also rare at public colleges generally; in half of U.S. states, no public college uses it at all.
This data answers a question we get constantly: "does legacy still matter?" The honest answer is that it depends entirely on where on your list you're asking about — it's basically extinct outside the most selective tier, and very much alive inside it.
If a parent or grandparent attended a school on your list with an acceptance rate at or below roughly 25%, put that information where the application asks for it. This data says you're applying to one of the schools in the group where legacy status is still live for a majority of institutions — there's no upside to leaving it out.
A legacy connection to a school that admits 40% or 60% of applicants is now closer to trivia than strategy — most of those schools have dropped it entirely. Don't let a family connection anchor your list to a school it shouldn't be on for other reasons.
Even where it's active, legacy preference is a tiebreaker among applicants who are already competitive, not a substitute for a strong file. Keep your prep and your application effort exactly where they'd be otherwise — this is not a reason to coast.
If your in-state public flagship is in Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, or California, legacy preference is off the table there by law regardless of selectivity. That's one less variable to plan around, and one more reason those flagships are being evaluated on academics alone.
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