California bans legacy admissions at private universities

California will ban private colleges and universities, including some of the nation's most selective institutions, from giving special consideration to applicants who have family or other connections to the schools, a practice known as legacy admissions.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday that will prohibit the practice starting in the fall of 2025.

The prohibition, which will affect Stanford University, the University of Southern California and others, comes at a time when institutions nationwide have been rewriting their admissions rules to reflect a Supreme Court ruling last summer that banned race-based considerations in the college admissions process. That case, which focused on affirmative action, revealed the extent to which legacy status has played a role in selection at elite schools.

The University of California, the California State...