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[quote=Anonymous][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.

[/quote]

Bingo
And furthermore with the ivies and peer schools shifting to have 55-60% of the student body on need-based aid, up from about 45% 10 years ago and up from 25% in the 90s, the common thread of an ivy student is high intelligence more than it ever has been. It doesnt mean all ivy kids are tip top smarts but about 3/4 of the top 5 ivies and the top 5 non-ivy privates are in the 98-99th %ile of intelligence, yes pre-test optional, whereas 3/4 are assuredly NOT in the in the top 2% wealth bracket, considering to get any need based aid the household income cutoff is well below the top 2%. 
Of the ones who are top2% wealth at ivies, the vast majority are also super smart. The less-smart at the ivies tend to be recruited athletes or significant other hooks, uber-wealthy donors (top 0.1% $) being an extremely small subset of the hooked group. [/quote]

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