Stanford will continue considering legacy status while no longer being test-optional for the fall 2026 admissions cycle, according to the University’s newly released admissions criteria.
It’s interesting that they are taking a financial hit in order to preserve legacy. Although even on a purely financial level, perhaps legacy is worth more money to Stanford than Cal Grants?
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I think the standardized test requirement was announced quite some time ago and is discussed in another, lengthy thread.
Yes, I think the news here is about legacy. Everyone assumed they were going to stop considering legacy after the anti-legacy bill passed.
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Probably they guess that increased donations outweigh the small amount of additional FA needed to replace Cal Grants. Stanford, like similarly selective private colleges, tends to have students highly skewed upward in parent finances, so there probably are not that many Cal Grant recipients there.
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I really doubt that the value of CalGrants compared to the perception that legacy status has meaning to donors was even a question. It is probably a handful of students this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if USC is next although that would be harder for them because they take many more transfer students. And they also their Trojan plan that delays admission for non-top tier legacy applicants. I am personally expecting the Trump admin to go after many aspects of undocumented students college funding in CA soon.
USC is not as rich as Stanford (its endowment is less than 1/4 of Stanford’s endowment), its students are not skewed as much to high income families as Stanford’s, and it has a history (“University of Spoiled Children”, Varsity Blues corruption) that likely makes legacy preference a more negative marketing point for it than for Stanford.
Very good point. I wasn’t think of Varsity Blues or its many, many other scandals.
Legacy admissions are gross. This lowers Stanford in my eyes.