From the Wall St. Journal: ...Schools that still use legacy preferences are concentrated among private universities, including all eight schools in the Ivy League. That is despite the sharp decline in the practice overall, with about 25% of schools now giving such preferences, down from half in 2015, according to a study by Education Reform Now, which advocates expanding access for underrepresented students on college campuses. Since the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, the number of schools using legacy preferences is down 18%.
Students who claim legacy status and whose families are among the wealthiest 1% of Americans are about five times as likely to be admitted to an Ivy Plus college as nonlegacy peers with comparable grades and test scores whose parents didn’t attend the college, according to research from Harvard University Professor Raj Chetty and his lab, Opportunity Insights. (Ivy Plus schools include the Ivies and other top institutions.)
Some schools say legacy admissions help with fundraising, foster a sense of community and build loyalty. “We think it’s an important part of who we are as an institution that creates a community that persists long after somebody graduates,” Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber wrote recently.
On its website, Princeton says “the legacy preference operates as a ‘tie-breaker’ between equally qualified applicants.”
“The overwhelming majority of alumni children who are admitted—all but about 30 a year—would be accepted without consideration of their legacy status,” the school says.
But more lawmakers and college presidents say they can no longer defend it... In 2024, California, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia joined Colorado in enacting laws that restrict legacy preferences...
Full story at https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/legacy-college-admissions-preferences-backlash-772c88be.
From Inside Higher Ed: Thanks to a series of settlements and court orders, some universities that had their grants frozen by the Trump administration earlier this year have seen that funding restored. But others are still trying to unfreeze the grants and learn more about why they were suspended in the first place. Since March, the Trump administration has said that it put nearly $6 billion on hold at nine universities. Three universities—Columbia, Penn and Brown—cut deals with the administration to restore the funding, while the University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard got the money back via court orders. The fate of the remaining four freezes—at Duke, Cornell, Northwestern and Princeton Universities—remains uncertain. Princeton has seen about half of its frozen grants restored, President Christopher Eisgruber told the alumni magazine in late August. Roughly $200 million was put on hold initially...
At Northwestern, the Trump administration reportedly froze about $790 million in early April, though officials said at the time they never received formal notification about why the funds were put on hold. Since then, Northwestern officials have said they are working to restore the grants—a process that apparently hasn’t gone smoothly. Northwestern University interim president Henry Bienen told The Daily Northwestern in an Oct. 17 interview that “a negotiation really requires two parties, at least, and at the present time, there’s not been anybody on the other end of the line.” ...
Cornell University is also in talks with the administration to find a solution to the freeze. However, President Michael Kotlikoff recently shared new information about the impact of the freeze that calls into question the Trump administration’s figures. Trump officials told media outlets in April that they froze more than $1 billion at Cornell. But Kotlikoff said last week in his State of the University address that Cornell is actually facing about $250 million in canceled or unpaid research funds... Kotlikoff added that Cornell has been talking with the federal government for six months “to identify their concerns, provide evidence to address them, and return to a productive partnership.” In August, Bloomberg reported that the White House wanted to reach a $100 million settlement with Cornell...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/10/29/northwestern-cornell-still-working-unfreeze-federal.
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