Texas A&M University will no longer award “legacy” points to applicants who are related to alumni.
The announcement earlier this month by Texas A&M president Robert Gates was made after the institution came under heavy fire for its 15-year-old policy of giving the children, grandchildren and siblings of alumni four extra points in the 100-point scale it uses to evaluate applicants for undergraduate admission. Last month the president also decided not to use race-conscious admissions criteria, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that colleges could consider race. Opponents of the legacy points argued that such admissions were at odds with the president’s stated goal of wanting to admit applicants solely on merit.