Like Harrison Frist and Al Gore III, thousands of wealthy, well-connected applicants slide into elite colleges each year with little regard to merit or diversity. They benefit instead from what I call the preferences of privilege. Although how-to-get-into college books, college night recruiters, and college administrators ignore or downplay their importance, the preferences of privilege aren’t just pivotal in close calls. They routinely allow an academically weak applicant to leap over a strong one and can represent an admissions boost equivalent to hundreds of SAT points at Ivy League schools and other elite colleges. The children of wealth and influence occupy so many slots that the admissions odds against middle-class and working-class students with outstanding records are even longer than the colleges acknowledge. . . .

Even as admission has become increasingly competitive in recent years, premier universities still extend preference to alumni children. Children whose parents have given big money in the past or are likely to pony up upon admission are ushered to the lead of the line. At nearly all top universities, the fund-raising office furnishes admissions with a list of these “development cases,” who are often accepted even if they rank near the bottom of their high school classes or have SAT scores 300-400 points below some rejected applicants. University presidents generally have a right-hand man, from Joel Fleishman at Duke to the late David Zucconi at Brown, whose role, whatever his title, is to gratify key donors and alumni, including facilitating the admission of their children.