Stanford College has confirmed its admissions insurance policies for fall 2026 will proceed contemplating legacy standing, a choice that would affect entry to one in all Silicon Valley’s most essential expertise pipelines. Stanford can be ending its test-optional coverage, requiring SAT or ACT scores for the primary time since 2021.
According to the Stanford Daily, the college is so dedicated to retaining legacy preferences that it’s withdrawing from California’s Cal Grant program, forgoing state monetary assist relatively than adjust to laws signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom final fall — Assembly Bill 1780 — which bans legacy admissions. The college guarantees to interchange that funding with its personal cash.
This issues far past Palo Alto. Stanford has been the launching pad for numerous tech leaders, from the founders of Google, Nvidia, Snap, and Netflix to different famend CEOs and VCs. With legacy admissions intact, youngsters of Silicon Valley’s elite arguably keep a bonus in accessing the community that has powered quite a few tech booms.
The return of check necessities provides one other wrinkle, probably favoring college students with sources for check prep. Whereas supporters consider it maintains educational requirements, critics argue that for an trade constructed on meritocracy rhetoric, Stanford’s choices signify a step within the improper path — reinstating standardized obstacles and perpetuating inequality.
Stanford final yr introduced its choice to reverse its 2021 choice to take away standardized testing as an utility requirement. That the college will proceed to think about legacy standing was revealed this previous week in newly launched admissions standards.
The insurance policies tackle added significance given universities’ monetary dependence on alumni assist. Alumni donations are main monetary contributors to academic establishments, significantly Ivy League faculties. Princeton College, for instance, acquired practically half its donations — 46.6% — from alums within the 2022-2023 educational yr.
At Stanford particularly, most donations are both directed towards annual giving by way of The Stanford Fund, which spends the cash instantly on present operations, monetary assist, and different packages; or they’re offered — extra typically — as presents to Stanford’s huge endowment (managed by Stanford Management Company), which spends roughly 5% yearly on college operations, accounting for roughly 22% of its working finances.
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Universities rely much more closely on alumni donations when going through exterior monetary pressures, and new federal insurance policies concentrating on greater training have created unexpected and unprecedented finances points for establishments like Stanford.
Stanford confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle simply final week that it’s going to completely lay off 363 workers, which is almost 2% of its administrative and technical workforce, owing to what officers described as “ongoing financial uncertainty” and “anticipated modifications in federal coverage.” These embody, most notably, a whopping improve in endowment taxes from 1.4% to eight% included within the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that was signed into legislation final month.
That tax improve alone will price Stanford an estimated $750 million yearly.