I just found out that the rich now pay promoters such as IvyWise to get their children into Ivy League schools. This makes me sick to my stomach.

I grew up in a poor rural area, with little access to the bells and whistles that wealthy children have access to as a matter of course. Even back then, I was disturbed by the fact that children of the rich could afford coaching for the SATs and exotic extracurricular activities. Now the rich are paying for total packaging, engineering their children into the elite position in society that Ivy League colleges underwrite. The Ivy League colleges seem to be complicit in this railroading of the poor, and Harvard has been among the worst offenders.

Recently I’ve been reading some mea culpas from various universities that promise more outreach to the poor. I don’t think this outreach is good enough. Applicants should be penalized for making use of promoters to game the system. At the same time, poor applicants should be recognized for their efforts to swim upstream at a time when the current has turned so strongly against them.

Update: This whole situation should cast suspicion how the major competitive scholarships such as the Truman, Mellon, and Rhodes are being awarded as well. These scholarships are major signifiers of “merit” which often determine admission to leading graduate schools.