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Comment by EliRivers | Hacker News Reader

It does seem awfully odd that the very wealthy still, in theory, compete with ordinary people like this. I wonder how long they will put up with it.

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Oh quite some time I would expect. The current system actually suits the wealthy quite nicely - on the surface it seems like it's a fair system allowing for admissions to be done based on merit. But as the article indicates, in reality the wealthy can buy a ticket for their children. So the proles are happy because they think the system is fair, and the rich are happy because a) they know it's not, b) they know the proles think it is, which gives them social cover.

Yet the article also indicates that even the supposed 'golden tickets' into the highest tier schools don't guarantee success. Sure, if your family built the library, they'll probably let you in with mediocre scores, but for the >99% of students to whom that does not apply, the admissions system works exactly as advertised. Who really cares that Theodore Legacy IV gets in when those people comprise <1% of the students? Someone's family needs to subsidize everyone else's tuition...

1) "Wealthy" doesn't mean "trust fund" money. Lots of people in the part of the 1% that isn't in the 0.1% don't have enough money where their kids could maintain their standard of living without being professionally successful themselves.

2) "Wealthy" people in the U.S. tend to be the "working wealthy" not "umpteenth generation wealthy." Among respectable rich people, there is a strong desire for the kids to follow daddy's footsteps at Princeton, etc. Look at the Frist family. The grandpa founded Hospital Corp of America (a $33 billion/year company). He went to Princeton then Harvard Medical School. Then he still donated a ton of money to Princeton to get in Bill Frist Jr.

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