On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning legacy and donor admissions at private California universities, including USC. The ban will come into effect Sept. 1, 2025 — after the current 2025 admissions cycle.

For the USC class of 2028, 14% of first-year admits and 30% of transfers were listed as legacy students in the University’s admissions profile.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the University wrote all admitted students meet its “high academic standards” based on a “holistic review” process that factors in how they contribute to the USC community.

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“We are fortunate that USC remains a top destination for so many accomplished students across the country and world, and we are always looking to evolve our admissions processes and recruitment efforts to bring as many of these students to USC as we can,” the University wrote. “We will do so in compliance with the law.”

Assembly Bill 1780 makes California the second state to ban legacy admissions for private schools, following Maryland’s decision in April. 

Colorado, Virginia and Illinois banned the process at public schools. California’s public universities eliminated legacy consideration in 1998, so the bill will not affect them.

A bill proposed by the United States House of Representatives to ban legacy considerations across the nation was introduced on Wednesday but has yet to come up in committee.

“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom wrote in a press release accompanying his signature. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”

Enforcement of the policy, however, is still ambiguous. The bill calls for private universities to report to the State Legislature and California Department of Justice whether it is in compliance with the bill’s provisions or not — along with the raw admission rate data. If a university is deemed to be giving preference to legacy students, its name would be posted on the California DOJ’s website by the next fiscal year.

Isaac Villarreal, a junior majoring in neuroscience, said legacy status should have some consideration. 

“If [legacy status] is the main driving force, the reason why you are getting into the school, that’s almost questionable,” Villarreal said. “It has some consideration, but it shouldn’t be the entire deal.”

USC will have to submit its admissions data for California DOJ review by June 30, 2026 and every year thereafter.

Dhruv Reddy contributed to this report.