The U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to remove race-based eligibility from the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program and will revise the program’s regulations via rulemaking. Conservative plaintiffs who had sued over the program’s race-conscious criteria agreed to drop their legal challenge after the department’s decision. The McNair program, which supports low‑income and underrepresented students pursuing doctoral study, distributed over $60 million through colleges in fiscal 2024. The Education Department framed the change as aligning the grant program with a Justice Department opinion while preserving the program’s core goal of expanding Ph.D. attainment for disadvantaged students. What happened: a federal grant program’s race-based eligibility will be rescinded by rulemaking. Who’s involved: U.S. Department of Education, DOJ guidance, McNair grant administrators, plaintiffs in the Young America’s Foundation suit. Why it matters: changing eligibility reconfigures a long-standing pathway for underrepresented scholars and alters how institutions design graduate-preparation outreach.