Grinnell College Statement on Legacy Admissions — Living our Values

Amidst national calls for elimination of legacy admission at highly selective colleges and universities, Grinnell College wishes to reiterate that we do not, and have never, utilized a system of legacy preferences in admission.  

Legacy applicants are defined as someone with at least one parent who has attended the college at which the student has applied for admission. Legacy applicants to Grinnell are not assigned points or preference in the admission process.  

Grinnell College does ask applicants about alumni connections to effectively manage relationships. However, the College’s values – including a fundamental commitment to social justice and access for students who have been historically excluded from higher education – dictate an admission policy that does not rely upon an applicant’s alumni connections in the admission decision. Grinnell admits between 10-13% of applicants each year and, since 2018, approximately 3.5% of enrolled students (about 15 in each class of approximately 440) have at least one parent who attended Grinnell – well below the percentage of legacy admissions at peer institutions that consider it as a factor.   

Without a system of legacy preferences and with the benefit of using race as one of many factors in the admission process prior to the recent Supreme Court decision, Grinnell has achieved a multicultural majority in the last two classes of entering students; fewer than 50% of enrolling students in the last two classes identified as white US citizens. The College has been preparing for the Supreme Court ruling for more than a year and is currently evaluating required adjustments to the admission and financial aid programs. In summary, Grinnell does not have a legacy admission program that could be eliminated to protect spaces in our classes for historically underrepresented students.