USC will continue to consider legacy applicants in its admissions process, interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in an interview with the campus media on Monday. This decision comes after a California ban on legacy preferences in admissions last year that came into effect at the beginning of September.
Kim said the decision came after “careful deliberation” and due to the importance of the Trojan family.
“It seemed perverse to us that, in considering two equally qualified applicants, that we couldn’t consider that one of them had a relative who had attended USC and really, really wanted to come here as their first choice,” Kim said. “It almost felt as if we would be disadvantaging the student, who wanted to fully convey why USC was their first choice and why it was so important for them to come here, if they were admitted.”
USC had the most legacy admits of private California universities in 2022, admitting 1,740 legacy students according to The Los Angeles Times. In the 2025-26 entering class, USC enrolled 545 legacy students.
Always so many excuses.
$$$ alums likely wealthy
I wonder what the state’s penalty is for such a ban - I think it’s related to funding of some sort.
There really isn’t a ‘ban’. CA private schools that still consider legacy can’t get state financial aid assistance for their (CA) students…so these schools have to fund the difference thru their institutional aid. Stanford has also said admissions will continue to consider legacy, at least for this cycle. All the CA private schools have to report compliance and legacy data to CA each year as well.
Anyway, I agree with you that this is $$$ driven. I assume that these schools receive greater $ from legacy families than they receive state financial assistance for CA students (OOS/int’l students wouldn’t qualify for CA state aid.)
“It almost felt as if we would be disadvantaging the student, who wanted to fully convey why USC was their first choice and why it was so important for them to come here, if they were admitted.”
Based on that comment, USC needs to change their Common Data Set to reflect that demonstrated interest is considered.
Good point if they claim demonstrated interest is not considered.
I will say, I know I’m an outlier, but I was never in favor of Legacy bans for private schools. I think banning legacy is totally appropriate for state schools. But, private schools should be able to admit legacies if they think it is financially beneficial to do so. Meritocracy (as most people define it) has always been a myth at private colleges anyway. The “best” students has never been the decider in who gets in.
I have no issue with private schools admitting legacies (or big donor kids) as long as they are transparent about it being something they do. That said, it is also why I’ve always thought the anti-Affirmative action rage was such a farce. While the actual reason a typical unhooked excellent White or Asian student often did not get in was simply that there are too many qualified applicants. If there was a case for someone “taking their spot” it has always been way more likely a legacy or athlete, than a Black or Latino student.
Hasn’t this been an issue with USC for a while, though? I seem to remember the CDS saying DI was not considered back when S23 was applying there, but it seemed very much like DI was being tracked and considered.
I’m in the ‘don’t care’ if private, sleep-away colleges want to give legacies a boost. They affect so few kids in total anyway, that the legacy impact is what, a few dozen each year for fall admission? (USC has been offering many legacies below the cut-line Spring admission for years.)
Presumably, no Cal Grant financial aid may be used at USC.
More like the definition of “merit” is not necessarily the same to the college versus in popular opinion. Even among the general public, there are disagreements about how to define “merit” (e.g. how heavily should grades, rank, and test scores be weighted relative to each other).
Of course, many colleges define legacy relationships as “merit” for various reasons, even though the general public largely does not (legacy is about as popular as race/ethnicity in college admissions among the general public).
Legacy preference is never about just “Legacy” anyways. It’s about Legacy + donations. A third generation legacy, whose family isn’t donating large amounts of money (or who have the potential to do so) is not going to get any advantage in admissions.
I am also in the group of people who don’t care that private colleges have legacy preferences, so long as they are transparent about it. More correctly, I don’t think that it should be banned, but it will color my opinion of that college.
I don’t think we are disagreeing at all here. That’s why I said meritocracy “as most people define it.” Colleges often also viewed affirmative action as meritocratic because of what they felt those students would add in value to the college, but the public sees it differently.
Legacy preference tends to decelerate the trend toward homogenization of the American college landscape. Those who appreciate pockets of traditionalism within American culture may see appeal in its survival.
Huh? That’s a rather sweeping statement when many/most excellent colleges have admission rates above 50%. Colleges ranked near #100 on USNews have admission rates of near 80%.
Legacy admissions only has much of an impact perhaps 30+ schools, out of 3000. Not exactly the “college landscape”.
And don’t forget, as a long ago poster named Mimi used to point out, those 30+ schools have had a generation of affirmative action admissions, and Mini used to note that we are eliminating legacy just when those diverse graduates’ children are applying…
Well, it looks like maybe we aren’t eliminating legacy after all? At least here on the west coast, where Stanford and USC are the schools most known for it.
For the past 10 years or so, the CDS has said that demonstrated interest was not used in the admissions process.
It is definitely tracked. When asked about it, they claim that it is a way to measure the effectiveness of their outreach programs. Interest can also be used to help them decide which students receive scholarships.
Speakers at our HS have told students to share why they want to attend USC but they have stopped short of saying that interest was considered in the admissions process.
Clear as mud! 
(And just to clarify, I’m not faulting YOUR answer in any way…)
I have been told by admissions counselors that university admissions offices rarely fill out CDS (it is someone in institutional research) and the “what matters” is not infrequently wrong or out of date.
Yes, ironic isn’t it. Minority students made up about 17% of Yale undergrad in the early 80’s. This year’s entering class is made up of only 44% white.
What percentage of the “44% white” students were legacy admissions?