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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The rebuttal is that prestigious colleges want successful alumni, not a bunch of scholars, per se.  Prestigious schools want leaders across the spectrum of society, not just the arcane arts of English literature and philosophy.

So, not all students at prestigious colleges are the smartest of the application pool, but they are smart enough, and when coupled with their family wealth and connections, will be successful in life. While some may not like that, that very alumni may be the one that hires or mentors your super-intelligent, middle-class kid.

This is nothing new, and it’s fine. The only people that find this shocking are those who come from environments where the schools they attend are based strictly on a test score. But, that too seems like a very narrow definition of merit, as we can talk all day about who has the wealth to prepare a kid for a specific exam. [/quote]

So you admit wealth is the driver, not natural ability. [/quote]

Of course that isn’t at all what the above post says.

Wealth conveys some advantages but doesn’t come close to explaining what we observe in college admissions.

People who are intelligent tend to end up relatively wealthy.  People who are intelligent tend to have intelligent kids because intelligence is heritable.

A disproportionate share of kids of wealthy families are highly intelligent.

Similarly, people who are unusually big and fast are far more likely to make it to the NFL.  The children of people who are big and fast are themselves more likely to be big and fast than kids from the general population.

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