The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges -- And Who Gets Left Outside the Gates

Daniel Golden

Crown Publishing Group, 2006 - Education - 323 pages

Every spring thousands of middle-class and lower-income high-school seniors learn that they have been rejected by America's most exclusive colleges. What they may never learn is how many candidates like themselves have been passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentialschildren of alumni, big donors, or celebrities. In this explosive book, the Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter Daniel Golden argues that America, the so-called land of opportunity, is rapidly becoming an aristocracy in which America's richest families receive special access to elite higher educationenabling them to give their children even more of a head start. Based on two years of investigative reporting and hundreds of interviews with students, parents, school administrators, and admissions personnelsome of whom risked their jobs to speak to the authorThe Price of Admissionexposes the corrupt admissions practices that favor the wealthy, the powerful, and the famous. InThe Price of Admission, Golden names names, along with grades and test scores. He reveals how the sons of former vice president Al Gore, one-time Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist leapt ahead of more deserving applicants at Harvard, Brown, and Princeton. He explores favoritism at the Ivy Leagues, Duke, the University of Virginia, and Notre Dame, among other institutions. He reveals that colleges hold Asian American students to a higher standard than whites; comply with Title IX by giving scholarships to rich women in "patrician sports" like horseback riding, squash, and crew; and repay congressmen for favors by admitting their children. He also reveals that Harvard maintains a "Z-list" for well-connected but underqualified students, who are quietly admitted on the condition that they wait a year to enroll. The Price of Admissionexplodes the myth of an American meritocracythe belief that no matter what your background, if you are smart and diligent enough, you will have access to the nation's most elite universities. It is must reading not only for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions, but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans. From the Hardcover edition.

What people are saying

Review: The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates

User Review - Goodreads

Fascinating and eye opening book. Takes concepts you are already aware of (admission for donors kids, legacy, Title 9, faculty kids) and shows how deliberate and ingrained these policies are. Every ...

Review: The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates

User Review  - Davehbo - Goodreads

I got it after the first chapter. One note book on how the rich and famous get into colleges.

Contents

• HOW THE ZLIST MAKES THE AtlST: 25
• RECRUITING THE RICH: 53
• THE FAME FACTOR: 87

About the author

Daniel Golden is Deputy Bureau Chief at the Boston bureau of "The Wall Street Journal," where he has covered education since 1999. Previously, he was a reporter at the" Boston Globe," The recipient of numerous journalistic honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award, he holds a B.A. from Harvard College. He lives with his wife and son in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges -- And Who Gets Left Outside the Gates
• Author: Daniel Golden
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2006
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Oct 31, 2008
• ISBN: 1400097967, 9781400097968
• Length: 323 pages
• Subjects: Education / Higher; Social Science / Social Classes