MERIT Act

Key Points

• The bill changes college accreditation standards so schools must show they don't give admissions preference to applicants just because a parent or relative is an alumnus or because someone donated money.
• Preferential treatment is defined narrowly as cases where the alumni or donor relationship is the determinative factor in an admissions decision, not just one factor among many.
• Schools can still consider how much an applicant wants to attend, called demonstrated interest, but only if the criteria are public, every applicant gets a chance to show interest, and access to that chance doesn't depend on money or family ties.
• Religious colleges keep the right to make admissions choices that fit their faith-based values, so the bill does not restrict how they weigh religious criteria.
• The Department of Education must study whether it can work with the National Student Clearinghouse to track legacy and donor admissions data without exposing personal donor identities or building a national database of personal information.