College Admissions and the Culture Wars
“Admissions to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities is now the ultimate zero-sum game. At stake aren’t simply parental bragging rights or a shortcut to a prestigious and prosperous future. College admissions has also become among the most contentious fronts in the culture wars.
Disputes over affirmative action, legacy preferences, favoritism toward wealthy donors, full-pay applicants, and those with political connections, and high schools submitting false information and inflating grades to boost applicants’ chances – occur with depressing regularity, reflecting the significance attached to access to the most highly ranked institutions.
These issues, of course, reflect widespread parental anxieties. The upper middle class, in particular, is acutely aware of the dangers of cross-generational downward mobility, and worries obsessively about their children’s access to a financially secure adulthood.”