Legacy admission is the most argued-about factor in college admissions and, on the schools' own forms, one of the least weighted. Here is what colleges actually report about alumni relation, and what it means if you have it or do not.
What the schools report
Section C7 of the Common Data Set asks each college to rate "alumni/ae relation" as very important, important, considered, or not considered. Across the 73 filings we have read for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 cycles: zero rate it very important, zero rate it important, 36 rate it considered, 37 rate it not considered.
No other factor on the form has zero schools in the top two ratings. Not interview, not demonstrated interest, not geography. Legacy is the one thing every school we read declined to call even "important."
The 37 that do not consider it
Every University of California campus we read, the University of Washington, Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Penn State, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Indiana, Iowa State, NC State, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Connecticut among the publics. Among privates: MIT, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, Harvey Mudd, Northeastern, Boston University, Skidmore, Vermont, and San Francisco.
Some of these are recent. Several states have restricted legacy preference at public universities by law, and a number of privates announced its end after the 2023 Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admissions. The C7 row is where that announcement becomes a data point.
The 36 that consider it
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, USC, Washington University in St. Louis, UNC, Tufts, Boston College, Villanova, Wake Forest, George Washington, Williams, Bowdoin, Haverford, Lafayette, Lehigh, DePauw, Denver, Baylor, Oklahoma, LSU, and Case Western.
"Considered" is the lowest rating above zero. It means the relation is an input a reader may see, not a weighted factor, and it says nothing about how often it changes an outcome. The published research on legacy at the most selective privates — including a widely cited 2023 study of Ivy-plus admissions — suggests the effect at those schools has historically been larger than "considered" implies. The form and the research are not contradictory; the form is the school's self-description, the research is the observed result. Read both.
Why "considered" is the ceiling
A school that gave alumni relation an "important" rating would be stating, on a public form, that it weights family ties in admission. In the current legal and political climate no school we read is willing to write that, whatever its practice. That is why the top two ratings are empty. The absence is itself information: schools are prepared to defend "considered" and nothing stronger.
If you are a legacy
At the 37, it does not exist as a factor. At the 36, it is a listed consideration and, at the most selective of them, historically more than that. Either way, the file still has to sit inside the admitted range on rigor, grades, and whatever else the school rates very important. Legacy at any school does not rescue a file the readers would not otherwise take seriously. Check the C7 row for the school, then check the C9 range for your score, and treat the relation as the last item, not the first.
If you are not
The practical question is whether your competition at a given school includes a favored group you cannot join. At the 37, no. At the 36, yes, to a degree the form does not quantify. That is an argument for weighting your list toward schools where the row reads not considered, if the rest of the fit is equal — and it is one more reason the same admit rate at two schools can hide two different bars.
Where this is going
The direction is one way. State legislatures have removed the preference at public universities in several states since 2021, and a number of private colleges have announced its end since 2023. The C7 row is where each of those decisions becomes visible, one filing at a time. If you are a junior reading this, the row at your target schools may look different by the time you apply, and it will be published.
How to use this in one minute
Open the C7 row for each school on your list. Sort the list into the two columns. For the not-considered column, remove legacy from your mental model entirely — for or against. For the considered column, treat it as one line among seventeen and look at which lines the school rates very important; those are where the file is actually decided. If a school on your list reads legacy as considered and you are not one, that is not a reason to drop the school. It is a reason to be exact about where your file sits in its range before spending a binding application there.
Where the numbers come from
Every rating is from section C7 of the named school's Common Data Set, 2024–25 or 2025–26 cycle, read from the school's own published filing. Counts are over the 73 filings we have read on those cycles. The reference to Ivy-plus research is to Chetty, Deming, and Friedman, Opportunity Insights, 2023. Each school page on PrepToDone shows the six C7 factors that vary most, with the filing year and source link.
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Results are data-based estimates and do not guarantee admission. This article is for informational purposes only and does not guarantee admission outcomes. All data is based on publicly available information and may not reflect current admissions standards.
Written by PrepToDone Team — data analysis on U.S. federal education datasets (IPEDS · College Scorecard).