America has an uneasy relationship with the idea of the unpaid internship. On the one hand, it’s a way for young people to get some experience and learn some things. On the other, it’s a form of resume-building that’s rigged in favor of kids who can afford it—and especially of kids whose connections can get them hired.

It seems that this awkwardness goes all the way to the top. At the White House, interns work throughout the Executive Office of the President. Some read letters and staff events, while others help with research or write memos. Applications are available to anyone on the White House’s website, and at first blush, it seems like a wonderfully democratic opportunity. “The White House Internship Program’s mission is to make the ‘People’s House’ accessible to future leaders from around the nation,” the site announces.

Alas, the actual roster of the outgoing class is not quite as egalitarian as the online hype, or president’s general political rhetoric, would suggest.

The list of interns who toiled in the executive mansion during the summer of 2013 included the offspring of Ron Klain, the former Joe Biden former chief of staff; Steve Rattner, the financier and onetime car czar; Don Baer, the communications powerhouse and former Clinton administration speechwriter; and Margaret Hamburg, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner. There’s also a young man named Summers, whose father will not be chairing the Federal Reserve—though it’s safe to say his family had a certain familiarity with the White House and other corridors of power before he landed that internship.

The proud parents of the class of 2013 also included Raghuveer Nayak, a Chicago democratic donor and fundraiser for former Illinois pols Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rod Blagojevich (he also donated $19,800 to Obama between 2004 and 2009). There was also a scion of the Lerner family, the real estate titans who own the Washington Nationals, and children of at least two different VIPs among influential Washington law firms: Winston & Strawn’s Timothy Broas and Holland & Knight’s Rich Gold.