At the University of Virginia, legacy admissions have sometimes made up as much as 14 percent of the entering class (New York Times 1). This is absolutely insane. As many as 14 percent of students in an entering class at the University of Virginia (UVA) got in simply because they had a relative who attended the school. This highlights the injustice of the college admissions process. Some legacy students may have gotten into UVA over non-legacy students, merely because they were related to someone who attended the school, despite being less qualified than non-legacy students.

Luckily, the state of Virginia has banned legacy admissions in public universities and colleges so this is no longer the case. Colorado and Illinois have also banned legacy preferences at public colleges and universities while Maryland and California have banned legacy preferences at both private and public colleges (New York Times 2).

But has Massachusetts taken any action to eliminate legacy admissions? Yes, Massachusetts is in the process of trying to ban legacy admissions. The bill Massachusetts’s state legislature is trying to pass relating to banning legacy admissions is Bill S.2687. It was put forward by state Senator Pavel M. Payano and others relative to higher education admissions (Bill S.2687). The part of this bill that bans legacy admissions reads as follows, “When deciding whether to grant admission to an applicant, a public institution of higher education shall not consider the applicant’s familial relationship to a person who attends or attended the institution. A public institution of higher education shall not include in the documents that it uses to consider an applicant for admission information that discloses the name of any college or university that any relative of the applicant attended” (Bill S.2687). This bill is significant because it will completely eliminate legacy preferences in Massachusetts public colleges when determining who should gain admission. This will make it so that everyone has a more equal shot of getting into Massachusetts public colleges, regardless of whether an applicant’s relative (s) attended particular Massachusetts public colleges.

This makes me really happy that there is a bill in Massachusetts that is trying to ban legacy admissions in public colleges. However, I can’t just sit back and hope that it gets passed. Please consider signing this petition in order to support Bill S.2687 and increase the likelihood of it being passed by the Massachusetts State Senate. After all, legacy admissions are unfair and need to be banned, even if it is just in public colleges, one state at a time.