“There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy,” Lelling said, perhaps accidentally highlighting the fact that, legal or illegal, there effectively always has been. This investigation has put what most students already know onto the public’s collective radar: The college admissions process rests on a playing field that is almost vertically tilted in favor of rich applicants. Woven into the college application process are advantages that range in subtlety and have nothing to do with merit. My close friend Michelle Dan ’19 said that, for her, financial considerations and her first-generation status impacted the college application process before it even began. Schools like Wellesley and Tulane have dropped their application fees altogether, and student activists have rallied against the practice of legacy preference in the admissions process.

Source: Daily Sun March 15, 2019 12:56 UTC