A study shows that students with identical grades and test scores are 2.2 times more likely to be admitted to an Ivy League school if their parents are in the top0.1% of wage earners, or get more than $611,000 per year.
A Perfect Fit
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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ONLY 2.2x more likely?
Somebody needs to recheck those numbers.
How long has this been going on? I know of a line in a story from the early 1980s that describes college as basically just the place where the powerful train the next generation of powerful to control everything. I’m sure there must be similar passages in even earlier books. And we’re seeing this, now, being reported as”news”?
Yumping frickin’ yimminee.
Probably forever. Now it’s been quantified.
Ted, I’m in agreement with the underlying facts here. And I think it is a good thing (hang on, I have to mail Martha Stewart a royalty check now) that it has been quantified.
But I’m still pretty angry about it all. From all the angles. Whether it’s idiot parents who fed their kids these lies or the administration/faculty whose jobs and tenure depend on keeping the kids tricked or the job culture that makes it that you have to have a bachelor’s degree in order to apply to be a receptionist at an office or the kids themselves for not figuring it out or the politicians (any one of whom could have had a free-labor intern put together the information 40 years ago) who could have raised hell about this, we’re only getting the stat quantified now, at the end of the game.
Hey, hey, kids. The whole thing was rigged. Just like you suspected. And here’s the numbers to prove it. Of course, by 2028, the number of college students will be plummeting relative to its peak and a whole lot of colleges will simply close forever. But don’t worry, we’ll have a new rigged system in place for those of you who still want to go.
Yes, it has forever been the case that in too many contexts personal connections are more important than professional merit, and that leads to individuals in marginalized groups remaining marginalized. At the risk of stating the obvious: the reason it is news again is that a primary weapon in trying to right this wrong, affirmative action, has been dealt a major blow.
As someone in the top 0.5% I find this unacceptable!!