We know that elite colleges aren’t the only pathway to elite careers. Yet many parents will stop at nothing to gain their children admission to these highly selective institutions. In a new episode of The Idea File, the Atlantic staff writer Adam Harris investigates the American fixation on Ivy League colleges that led to the Varsity Blues college-admissions scandal. Harris also reveals who really suffers from the hysteria of the college-admissions process, with its attendant misconduct as families try to game the system.

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