Only when top colleges swap their race-based affirmative action policies for socioeconomic ones will the unfair advantages of the wealthy be nullified, and only then will their student bodies be truly diverse.
— Sebastian Zagler, John T Hoggard High School Wilmington NC
Are we really that surprised? In a culture that persistently propagates the idea that elite college admissions are the only key to success, in a culture that ascribes immense status to traditional centers of academic achievement, in a culture that has always supported the wealthy attending selective schools, no, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Ivy League acceptance rates were once well over 50%, and with numbers now approaching less than one tenth of that previous mark, it is apparent that something must have changed … In decades past it was only the wealthy who were able to send their children to the elite private high schools that nearly guaranteed admittance to Ivy League caliber institutions. It should come as no surprise that this same mentality is now in conflict with modern holistic admissions.
However, these ideas about status and education are not just the result of rich parents who want the best for their children; their actions are motivated by a culture that irrationally overvalues specific schools. Consider the Supreme Court, on which every single justice has attended at some point either Harvard Law or Yale Law (or both).
Even as the rich are getting richer, and their privilege skyrockets, 50 SAT/ACT prep coaches, parents, and test administrators felt the need to ensure their child’s spot in Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale. Imagine the mediocrity: rich, mostly white, most likely christian students with all of the privileges they need to be successful needing to cheat to get into a good college.
We are fed lies that affirmative action takes away the right of hard working Americans to get into college, that financial aid and other such programs that help the poor and disadvantaged people of our country are taking away that right from Americans to get into college. However, as it has almost always been, the rich are feeding these lies to the poor to keep them poor, while the rich prosper, the rich get into good colleges, and the rich live lives full of advantages.
— Jason Melnick, Lakewood Public Highschool
When was the last time a new college was made that I was made aware of? My parents always tell me, “Apply for UC’s” or basically go to colleges that are already established. I’m not sure if new credible colleges are being made, but I definitely think that if it could happen it could lower competition, and in the end lower situations like this. No one will have to reach such desperate or cheap measures to get their kid into college.
