Every other summer, Sewanee: the University of the South invites a handful of prospective students to take an exclusive tour of its campus and surroundings, in Tennessee. This special treatment is reserved for "legacy" students. Sewanee, like many other small private colleges, aggressively recruits prospective students whose parents, grandparents, siblings, or even aunts or uncles graduated from the institution. In recent years, the public outcry over preferential treatment for legacy students in college admissions has grown louder, and some well-known politicians, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, have decried the practice. Critics say that favoring the children of alumni unfairly benefits a group of students who are typically white and affluent. Thus, in response to widespread complaints from state lawmakers and civil-rights advocates, Texas A&M University ended its longstanding policy of giving an admissions edge to legacy applicants. But at many small private institutions, particularly women's and religious colleges, admissions officers say that legacy students are crucial to their institutions' livelihood, and that recruiting them does not compromise efforts to create a diverse class. In fact, many of these institutions are seeking out academically qualified legacies more aggressively than ever before, hoping to raise their prestige and attract more high-achieving students.