The 1%, college admissions, and trickle-down education

In her Aug. 7 article, “Yes, colleges favor rich kids. How much should we care?” (Business), Kara Miller gives a college-level demonstration of pretzel logic. It’s fine for elite colleges to favor those born with a credit card in their mouths because their parents pay more (big donations). Big money buys better professors and facilities. Fifteen percent of Harvard’s freshman class is from the top 1 percent. Isn’t that wonderful (for Harvard)? Somehow that benefits us all.

And that’s exactly the point. Many of us not born rich must attend state schools, which are never so endowed. Miller argues that we can get a fine education there. Uh-huh. Been there; not the same.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court’s pretzel logic says it is illegal to favor minorities in the college admissions process but says nothing about favoring the rich or any other group. What happened to equality for all?

College admissions should let the cream rise to the top, no matter their income or anything else.

ROBERT GILSTEIN Franklin

Although she admirably defends the intentions of college admissions staff and the credentials of her fellow members of the professoriate, Kara Miller almost entirely misses the point made by Raj Chetty, David Deming, and John Friedman in their recently hyped study.

The three economists show that the halls of power in the United States are overpopulated with graduates of the 12 prestigious “Ivy-Plus” universities identified in their study. While correcting the misperceptions that these schools provide a demonstrably better education and/or improve higher education for all may be the better long-term goals, convincing the leaders of these 12 institutions to truly democratize their admissions policies is a much more powerful lever arm to advance equity in the highest echelons of our society.

DR. KEITH J. LOUD Norwich, Vt.