New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions 2025 Letter to State Legislative Leaders 

Dear Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie,

We, the undersigned organizations across New York State, strongly support the Fair College Admissions Act [A.2125 (Walker) / S.2237 (Gounardes)], which will end the unfair practice of prioritizing students for admission based on their family connections. 

Enhancing college access and completion rates is paramount to ensuring the success of our students and preparing them for the future economy. However, structural and systemic barriers still prevent many students from equal access to college. These barriers must be addressed. The practice of legacy admissions is one such barrier. Legacy admissions disproportionately benefits White and wealthy students by giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to college applicants with familial connections to alumni. It perpetuates generational privilege and disadvantages students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. It is crucial that we work to eliminate these inequities and ensure that college admissions decisions are based on merit and not inherited privilege.

Some defenders of legacy admissions claim that providing this birthright admissions advantage could help them boost campus diversity, but the numbers belie that claim. Although no New York colleges divulge the demographics of their legacy students, the 2018 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard trial revealed that nearly 70% of the legacies applying to Harvard then were White, while not even five percent were Black. 

A 2024 study found that Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of attending an Ivy Plus school than White applicants with similar academic and extracurricular qualifications. This gap was even worse for students of South Asian descent, who were 49% less likely to attend an Ivy than their White peers with the same qualifications. The researchers determined that legacy preferences were the leading source of this obviously unfair outcome, since “high-scoring White applicants are three to six times more likely to have legacy status than high-scoring Asian American applicants.” They also found that high-scoring White applicants are two to three times more likely to have legacy status than high-scoring Black and Hispanic applicants are. 

Many private colleges and universities continue to consider legacy preference as a factor in admissions decisions today. In particular, a 2025 analysis shows New York has more colleges that consider legacy status than every other state in the country. One out of every seven colleges in the country that use legacy preference are based in New York. More than half the colleges that considered legacy status in 2015 no longer do so and five states have banned legacy admissions, but many New York colleges and universities cling to this practice, even though 3 out of every 4 Americans support ending legacy preferences.

The Fair College Admissions Act seeks to ban legacy admissions at all colleges and universities in New York. By doing so, we can foster a more equitable higher education environment, create more diverse college classes, and expand opportunities for students from historically underrepresented groups. Enforcement would be conducted through the New York State Education Department (NYSED)’s Office of College and University Evaluation, which already has oversight over institutions of higher education by registering their individual programs of study. Institutions found by NYSED after a hearing to be engaging in a pattern or practice of violation would face a penalty of $50,000.

Under this law, institutions will still be permitted to inquire about an applicant’s relation to an alumnus, but only for data collection and reporting purposes, and only after an offer of admission and financial aid has been accepted. This ensures transparency without compromising the fairness of the admissions process.

By supporting the Fair College Admissions Act, we have the opportunity to level the playing field to ensure all students have a fair chance of getting a college education that will set the path for the rest of their lives. Let us take this critical step to ensure that every student, regardless of their background, has a fair chance at achieving their academic and professional goals. For these reasons, we strongly support A.2125 / S.2237 and urge its immediate passage.

Sincerely,

Alliance for Quality Education
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
ASK Advising
Caribbean Equality Project
Center for Community Alternatives 
Center for Racial Justice in Education 
Children’s Defense Fund New York
Citizen Action of New York
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
College Access: Research & Action
College Democrats of New York
Columbia Policy Institute
Columbia University Asian American Alliance
Columbia University Black Students Organization
Columbia University Democrats
Columbia University Housing Equity Project
Columbia University IGNITE
Columbia University Mock Trial
Columbia University Sikh Student Association
Columbia University Sunrise Movement
Columbia University Young Democratic Socialists of America
Community Equity Initiative
Cornell University ACLU
Cornell University Asian Pacific Americans for Action
Cornell University Democrats
Cornell University Pan-African Students Association
Cornell University South Asian Council
CUNY Graduate Center Public Science Project
CUNY Rising Alliance
Democrats for Education Reform New York
EdTrust New York
Education Reform Now 
Equality New York
Grad Team Collective
Hildreth Institute
IGNITE National
John Jay College of Criminal Justice United Women’s Alliance
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Make the Road New York
Mekong NYC
NAACP New York State Conference
National Parents Union
New York Civil Liberties Union
NYU Asian Cultural Union
NYU College Democrats
Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153
Partnership for the Public Good
Peaceful Schools
Restorative Justice Initiative
The Center for Anti-Violence Education
The Circle Keepers
The Gathering for Justice
The Institute for College Access & Success
The Sikh Coalition
uAspire
Young Invincibles
Youth Represent

CC. Members of the Senate and Assembly