You dont need to study harder to be well rounded. You just have to write a check. A nightmare. Coaches, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. It may have looked like a hollywood premiere at times. Lori, pay for my tuition, lori i do want the experience of, like, game days, partying, i dont really care about school. Lori, are you satisfied . Do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity . Two famous actresses caught up in what prosecutors are calling the Largest College admissions scam ever. Crazed parents doing whatever it takes. Its unbelievable. It is so competitive to get your kid into school today. The parents are terrified. Its parents who are driving a lot of this craziness. A fierce competition. Top schools like yale, wake forest, georgetown. And it starts early. The youngest weve got for College Consulting would be third grade. Theyre pushed, theyre prodded. Theyre in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. You may begin. Its a big money business. We will create packages that can break a Million Dollars. And the real scandal may be what is legal. A side door for rich kid sports. Theres only certain families that can afford to have Children Play some of these sports. Donors, getting a leg up. We allow them to play this corrupt game in admissions. The system is broken. Who is to blame . They set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. Finding the road back. Dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper into which path is the clearest one to take. To what college is supposed to be. Throngs of people hail the end of the war in europe. In america in 1945, anything seemed possible. And what a thrill. With world war ii over, the country was revving its engines. Almost 50 million motor vehicles. And for a surging middle class, the American Dream had a new name. The g. I. Bill. For the first time, almost all who had served could go to college for free. Any kind of education and in any part of the country. Millions jumped at the chance. But the most elite schools still remained closed to many. They were private clubs, open mostly to members of americas aristocracy. White anglosaxon protestants. Now has the edge for the ivy league crown. At harvard, one man wanted to open the gates. Really get going. The schools president , James Bryant Conant asked himself, what would Thomas Jefferson do . Jefferson had written that america should create an aristocracy of talent to replace the aristocracy of birth and wealth. Now hes about to enter an environment more in keeping with his social position. Most harvard men, and they were still all men, came from prep schools with the right pedigree. At college, he will meet men of his own kind. They have servants who would come with them to harvard. They would put on their tuxedos every night and go to debutante balls. Good manners often trumped good grades. Extremely handsome and charming. He writes wonderful thank you notes. Out there in america, james conant believed, those working with their hands were jeffersons diamonds in the rough. Just waiting to be discovered. Lets find those people and bring them to harvard. But how to find them . Conant decided that we needed a test. Not to measure knowledge, greek, or higher mathematics. That would favor the wellschooled. This really isnt the kind of a test you can study for. Instead we need a test that measures innate aptitude. Harvard had such a test for scholarship students. Ready . Begin. And it became you may begin. Americas s. A. T. A test for all americans. Last year, 2 Million Students took it. James conants dream of a meritocracy and admit you to the fellowship of educated men. Of the smartest, outshining the most privileged, seemed to be coming true. The s. A. T. Was meant to be the great leveler. It would give everyone a chance to climb the ladder of success. And for decades, it did, bringing millions of new faces into americas establishment. But how did we go from creating an aristocracy of talent to spawning a criminal conspiracy . This College Admissions scam story, the biggest ever prosecuted. Do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity . The College Admissions scandal. Lori, lori, pay for my tuition, lori is there anything you want to say to the charges against you . From the moment it hit the headlines no comment, no further comment. The massive sting exposing the ugly truth. America was appalled. Are you satisfied with what the judge decided today . It is morally outrageous. You dont need to work anymore. You dont need to take your time and do the right thing. You just have to write a check. Seems like wooe were working for nothing if theyre coming and buying their way into college. Having a lot of money is not part of what makes a person a person. The story behind the scandal was the stuff of tabloids. Whos who of coaches, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. Felicity all my favorites. Youre asking for a bribe . Pretending youre a bum . I got my checkbook. The actress, felicity huffman, pleaded guilty to paying 15,000 is prison the right sentence . To inflate her daughters s. A. T. Score. I want to model for my daughters having a voice in the world. And, you know, that means having influence and having power, and to tell you the truth, having money. Lori, straight ahead. We may have well, he may have embellished, lied a bit on our application. Lori loughlin and her husband pleaded not guilty after allegedly spending half a Million Dollars to concoct phony profiles of their daughters as accomplished rowers. Daughter olivia jade got into usc. Oh, yeah. Even though she was neither a rower winded. Nor scholar. I do want the experience of, like, game days, partying. I dont really care about school, as you guys well know. This is a game. Just realize that this is a game. At the center of the scheme, independent College Counselor rick singer. Sir, why did you game the system . My key method unlocks the full potential of your son or daughter and sets them on a course to excel in life. Singer showed an ability to con and dazzle even very successful people. They send their plane to come pick me up, come to the meeting for a couple hours, two, three hours, put me back on the plane, send me to the next place i need to go. Lori, straight ahead. Felicity the hollywood names made the headlines. Are you guilty . But some other parents were the most dumbfounding. Singer charged this woman 50,000 to have a stranger take her sons a. C. T. Her name is Jane Buckingham and she is a parenting expert. Every working mom comes to me and says, how do i do it all . Guess what, you cant. No one is superwoman. So dont try to be. She even gave her sons handwriting sample to make the forging easier. Also, dont let guilt be your guide. But buckingham did plead guilty to fraud. Corruption is almost inevitable. It doesnt surprise me in the least that some people would try to game the system. The system is inherently phony. Its unbelievable. It is so competitive to get your kid into school today. Frenzied parents lying and paying bribes to give their children a leg up. Not exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he envisioned the meritocracy. But the founding father could not have foreseen this crazed competition. Its all because a fouryear degree has become the great economic divider in america. People who have one will earn about twice as much in their lifetimes as those who dont. And those who get the Golden Ticket and Ivy League Degree can, government figures show, earn more than double the income of other college graduates. Parents get more and more anxious. Thats why they turn to independent counselors. You know, theyre desperate. There are at least 15,000 private College Counselors in america. You can find dozens of them on youtube. Hey, guys, have you ever wondered how to get that elusive wow factor . Today i want to speak about what you should never speak about during an Ivy League Admissions interview. Many are reputable. But they are largely unregulated even as their business is exploding. We decline families all the time. A c average isnt going to get you into harvard and theres nothing any consultant is going to do about that. Well, any legitimate consultant. Private counselor allen koh likes to start his clients early. The youngest were talking to them is fifth grade. The youngest weve got for College Consulting is third grade. You heard that right, third grade. Koh shared clients with rick singer but says he had no idea who singer was doing. I was shocked that i knew someone who did this. I was shocked that this was even possible. And Something Else surprised him. The sums of money involved in the scandal. I think a lot of people were shocked because they were so big. I was shocked because they were so small. Our most Expensive College application package is 350,000. That price doesnt even include test preparation. Everything is a la carte for test prep. For families who have special circumstances, we will create packages that can break a Million Dollars. Mr. Singer, do you have anything to say to the students who are in college now, what this might do to their lives . Money is at the heart of the College Admissions scandal. But more troubling than the bribes paid are the legal ways that money is used to corrupt the process. Wealthy parents spend lavishly to prepare their children. From childhood on, theyre pushed, theyre prodded, theyre in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. And it pays off. If you make over 200,000 a year, your kids will score on average 400 points higher on the s. A. T. Than kids from low income families. Wealth also gives students a big advantage if their parents are donors. At some schools, giving 10 million isnt enough because 10 million makes no impact on their school. They want 30 million, 40 million, 50 million. Rick singer convinced parents that his schemes were actually a bargain. He was saying to the parents, yeah, youre paying hundreds of thousands of dollars but this is going to save you money. Otherwise you would have to give 10 million to one of these schools to get your schools in. Dan golden is a pulitzer prizewinning journalist. He wrote a bestselling expose called the price of admission. As his own alma mater, harvard, he looked at how often the children of big donors gained admission. Harvard has this group called the committee on university resources, Something Like 400 people. Then i came across Jared Kushners parents on this committee. And i was interested because most the people on the committee were alumni, and Jared Kushners parents had no affiliation with harvard. Whos adviser Jared Kushner, then an unknown teenager, applied to harvard. I began speaking with people familiar with Jared Kushners High School Record and it turned out he was not a particularly outstanding or motivated student. And there was no lack of people willing to attest to that. Charles kushner had donated 2. 5 million to harvard. Jared got in. So what i dont understand is, how is it that harvard can let Jared Kushner buy his way in but it doesnt take a hit reputationally . We should adjust and just say, oh, okay, thats what a harvard degree means . All right. The Kushner Family has said there is no connection between the donations and Jared Kushners acceptance. Harvard does not comment on individual applicants. Ivy League Schools do point out that large donations give them the chance to educate students who could not otherwise afford them. They also contend that some children of large donors are rejected. What is clear is that in this meritocracy, it Still Matters who your parents are, especially if they went to the school of your choice. Legacy admission gives strong preference to the sons and daughters of alumni. Legacy admissions, the idea that you get a special break because your parents went there, why, is this feudal england . I cant imagine what the thought process is. Theyre terrified what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference. They believe a lot of alumni donate in the hopes of getting their children into the school. According to the harvard crimson, about onethird of last years freshman class had relatives who went to harvard. Legacy admission is deeply entrenched at many toptier schools. To understand where it all began, let me take you back to a troubling chapter from more than a century ago. They founded schools that their sons might absorb the accumulation of mans knowledge and wisdom. In the early 1900s, the number of applications from jewish boys to elite schools began rising. They tended on average to overperform academically and to, you know, have a sort of educationobsessed culture. Antisemitism was far more prevalent then and concern grew over the number of jews at ivy League Schools. They came knocking at the door of the ivies and the ivies were very uncomfortable with that. At harvard, president lowell openly called it the jewish problem. His solution, count the jews to see how quickly their numbers were rising. They felt that jews will take over. According to this historian, jerome carabel, administrators pored over records but it wasnt always clear who was jewish. So a ranking system was used. J1 for students who were clearly jewish. J2, more than likely jewish. J3, could be jewish. The findings, in 1922 harvard was 21 jewish. The president decided to take action. I am instituting a jewish quota. There was strong pushback to the ugly idea of counting jews. They looked for ways to hold down jewish enrollment without actually having a specific jewish quota number or an antijewish policy. Several other ivy League Schools, yale, columbia, were also dealing with the socalled jewish problem. One answer turned out to be legacy admissions. One of a Greater Society of free and enlightened men. Schools began giving preference to the sons of alumni. The idea was if they did so, they would not be able to take in as many jews. Up next, the real corruption. Sports. Rick singers dark scheme. What do you want to say to your former players . To cash in on the enormous clout of college coaches. [woof] everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. Expedia. For everyone you love. paul Wireless Network claims americas most reliable network. The nations largest and most reliable network. The best network is even better . Best, fastest, best. Enough. Sprints doing things differently. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great, but dont just take my word for it. Try it out and decide for yourself. Switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. No matter what life throws down roomba is up for the challenge. Only roomba uses 2 multisurface rubber brushes that powerfully clean up debris on all your floors. And only the roomba i7 system empties its bin into allergenlock™ bags that trap 99 of allergens. Forget about vacuuming for months. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba™ what do you want to say to your former players, do you have any remorse, mr. Meredith . Your former players who trusted you . Yales soccer coach took over 400,000. He pleaded guilty to taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Stanfords sailing coach agreed to take over 600,000 for the sailing team. Anything to say about your charge . The fbi agreed the uc tennis coach was paid more than 90,000. Any comments . Are you guilty . In all ten coaches and athletic officials were accused in rick singers scheme. Five have pleaded guilty and five not guilty. Mr. Singer, do you have anything to stay . How about all the students who were qualified and cheated out of this kept out of school because of what you did. Its no coincidence that College Sports is at the heart of the biggest College Admissions scandal in history. Singer worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles for their kids. Singer knew that the recruitment of athletes was a weak link in the admissions process. Students athletic credentials had been fabricated. Charging documents say he accepted millions of dollars in bribes. Coaches had enormous power to choose their recruits. What made you want to plead guilty . It was tough to bribe a whole committee, but you could bribe one person. Schools say theyre addressing the problem, stressing that they were victims in rick singers scheme. But the system they created lives on, where some kids get huge advantages in admissions through the side door of athletics. They werent the victims. I mean, thats ludicrous. They set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. When people think of College Sports, they often think of all american favorites like football and basketball. Sports with lots of publicity and many low income and minority students. But there is also rowing and lacrosse and water polo and other sports that a lot of rich white kids play and that many College Applicants cant afford. Elite colleges reserve a huge number of slots for all athletes. More than 30 of the class in some schools. And they dramatically lower admissions standards to let the athletes in. With all the preferences, the preference for recruited athletes is the biggest in terms of how much it helps candidates. Take harvard, for example. Every applicants academic record is ranked on a scale from one to six with one being the highest. Those who scored a four who were not athletes got in less than 1 of the time. But the athletes who scored a four got in around 70 of the time. Harvard claims that no one is admitted based on one single trait. Still, admissions at elite schools for athletes like lacrosse players is often effectively affirmative action for rich white kids. You cant play this absurd game where you have affirmative Action Program for rich white people because you have a back door for these sports. Rich parents spend loads of money to help their kids become recruitworthy athletes, paying hefty sums for coaching and camps. Meanwhile, of course, many Public School kids dont even have access to posh sports like golf and sailing. Theres only certain families that can afford to have their kids play some of these sports. So why do elite american colleges favor athletes in the first place . After all, other countries dont have these kinds of preferences for Baseball Players or skiers. People would look at you in england or germany and say, wait, what . One big reason for the favoritism is tradition. In the early 20th century, american colleges saw athletics as a way to mold young mens character. Underdog princeton. College sports grew wildly popular with the public. Yale squared off against harvard in the final game of the season. Spawning powerful athletic departments and loyal alumni. I think if you gave the average College President at these kinds of colleges a few drinks and said, do you want to dial this down . Theyd say yes, but theyd say the alumni, hear from them immediately, and theyd put up a big fuss. College president s like to talk about maring to tt tytoty, fact, they kept key elements of the old aristocracy in place like athletics and legacies. Yale was found more than two centuries ago by ten congregational clergymen. When one College President tried to take on legacies, all hell broke loose. Kingman brewster was yales president in the 1960s famous for finally admitting women to the college. He was eager to make yale more inclusive. Good morning. Courting more applicants from Public Schools. And he slashed legacy admissions by almost half in just one year. Disaster. Immediate disaster. The alumni revolted. Yale graduate william f. Buckley jr. Lamented that the son of an alumnus now has less chance of getting in than some boy from p. S. 109 somewhere. Alumni contribution just fell off a cliff. Eventually, brewster gave in, and ever since, no Ivy League School has dared to take on the admissions preference for alumni children. Theyre terrified what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference. But there are Great Schools out there that avoid legacy preference. And theyre doing just fine. Cal tech doesnt cater to alumni kids, and it has one of the largest endowments in the nation. Even oxford and cambridge with their centuries of hallowed tradition refuse to favor alumni children. Their endowments are well into the billions. We like to think in this country that england is the land of social class and aristocracy and america is the land of democracy, but at least in College Admissions the reverse appears to be true. When you add up all the admissions preferences at elite schools, like legacies, recruited athletes, and children of wealthy donors, you get an astounding number. At some schools, its around 50 of the class. That is the behavior thats typical of some moribund, irrelevant, corrupt private club. Coming up, theres one school in america thats doing admissions entirely differently. At Berea College in kentucky, in order to get in here, you must be poor. When we come back. [ turn around, look at me the vogues ] there is someone walking behind you turn around look at me there is someone look at me head in now for applebees new pasta grill combos starting at 9. 99. Graduation day. It is a celebration of one of americas most cherished ideals. If youre talented and work hard enough, you can make it to the top. Its time for you to lead the way. You are the living, breathing proof that the American Dream endures in our time. Its you. To make it into yale law school, the Top Law School in the country, students must compete in a rigorous academic contest. Youre sitting here today because you ranked among the top. 03 of a massive competition. Earning a degree from yale is considered a Golden Ticket to the american elite. Its an exclusive club that includes bill and Hillary Clinton and four sitting Supreme Court justices. But in 2015, students at commencement got some bad news from this man. The meritocracy is a broken system. Weve constructed a gilded cage that ensnares the rich and excludes the rest. Yale Law School Professor Daniel Markovits told students that the payoff theyd been working for their whole lives is actually a trap. Working from 8 00 a. M. Until 8 00 p. M. D6 days a week withou vacation or sick days for every week of the year. In other words, the system isnt even working for the winners. Were now in a state in which a narrow elite is much too rich for societys good and works much too hard for its own good. Markovits main argument is that by rewarding a specific kind of achievement above all else, the meritocracy is making americans miserable and creating a hyperunequal society. If youre a middle class kid or a poor kid, you simply cant compete with the educations that rich kids are getting. Thats one of the reasons why at 38 of the most elite colleges including yale, princeton, and brown, youll find more students from families in the top 1 than the bottom 60 . But there is another way. An alternate universe, if you will. At a Small Liberal Arts College in the foothills of appalachia. [ church bells ] Berea College only admits high performing low income students who have been excluded from our modern meritocracy. Rich kids need not apply. You heard that right. Berea will reject their applications. It doesnt want their money. This college is completely free. 98 of freshmen are pell grant recipients and come from families who earn an average of 28,000 a year. Its a radical ideology. These are some of the poorest kids in the country. Had you heard of maria ahead of time . The president of berea, lyle rudolphs, believes this is one of the key ingredients to its success. No student feels stigmatized because all come from the same economic context. All students are required to work for the college at least ten hours a week. I know some students who looked up free college and found berea. This sounds fake. I was just like, theres a catch. Thought it was a scam, theres no way. But there is a way. In 1855 the college was founded to provide an education for students excluded from elite colleges, including women and freed slaves. How do they do it . Well, it now has a 1. 2 billion endowment. While ivy League Schools still admit the children of wealthy donors and legacies largely for the sake of their endowments, berea has made it to the list of americas hundred richest colleges another way. Shrewd investing and good oldfashioned generosity. Come join us. Its giving day theres a fundamental impulse in american philanthropy to give opportunity to those who deserve it but lack the means. And weve tapped into that for many, many years. So Data Analysis takes a little while. If youre wondering how berea ranks academically, this year it jumped 15 points in the u. S. Newsing it one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the country. But bereas president has pledged not to publicize its rankings. He believes they fuel the College Admissions frenzy by focusing on the wrong metrics, money and status instead of quality. Bereas Admissions Office doesnt obsess about test scores or grades. Instead, it identifies students who display extraordinary potential like mccall england, a senior who had always dreamed of going to college. You want to see, like, where hes at. Mccaul now works in the Admissions Office as a student manager and studies marketing. He spends any moment he can on his true passion, making music. Making the impossible possible, you can say im unstoppable i feel like this is somewhere i belong. I felt very welcomed as soon as i got to the college and was shown, like, all these different resources. Like, wow, these people actually want to help me succeed. The college has built a culture in which students help each other to succeed. It means the world to me. I feel like this is home for me. I do feel like this is home for a lot of people. Dan markovits thinks bereas model provides one possible solution to the madness of the meritocracy. An excellent education is an education that teaches you what you need to know, the knowledge and the skills you need, in order to do good work thats useful. Dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper into which path is the clearest one to take that will make you become successful. The universities are realizing that their Current Business model is just too hungry for assets and status and privilege and theyve got to diversify. Up next we wont go back to the back of the line the explosive battle in College Admissions over affirmative action. [ crowd chanting ] verizon up gave us tickets to the super bowl we were able to meet shawn mendes. Verizon got me into the nfl combine. They dont even sell tickets to this thing. announcer verizon knows you love live music and sports. We got to be this far away from the stage. announcer thats why we give you access to more jawdropping experiences, including the nfl. I have never had a vip experience before like that. Probably the best moment of my life. announcer get access to thousands of tickets on us. Plus up to 750 toward our best phones. Because the network more people rely on gives you more. For barcelona . We did promise wed go. [dog] take that trip [dog] take it take it take it take it [sfx mastercard checkout sonic plays] [dogs] they get the miles. We get a petsitter. [dog] whoa [sfx mastercard checkout sonic plays] [dog] music to my ears use the card that gets you miles closer to your promise. We should do this every year. [dog] they should do this every year. And start something priceless. [ crowd chanting ] affirmative action. Affirmative action is leveling the playing field. To understand just how politically charged the issue is we wont go to the back of the line consider this. One of the most important civil rights cases in over 20 years. One landmark Supreme Court ruling still stands as the benchmark for minority College Admissions. But it came over 40 years ago. And it involved a white man. Allan bakke sued the medical school of university of california at davis for reverse discrimination. The university had a quota. It reserved 16 spots for minority students. Bakke argued he was academically more qualified than the students who filled the quota. One, two, three, four the court ruled in his favor in 1978. Racial quotas were deemed illegal. Allan paul bakke. They said once again that white rights are supreme in this country. But affirmative action wasnt dead. The court also said that race could be considered in admissions but only as one of many factors. And now, another legal battle threatening to end affirmative action once and for all. This time the scene is harvard. Asianamericans sued the school, charging that harvard Admissions Officers disregard their sterling test scores and grades and hold them to a higher standard. Although a federal judge ruled earlier this month siding with the university, the case is far from over. Thats because the man behind the lawsuit is edward blum, one of the nations most influential and conservative opponents of affirmative action. Harvard systematically raises the bar for asianamericans and systematically lowers it for whites, africanamericans, and hispanics. Blum has vowed to appeal that decision and many believe it will end with a National Showdown at a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, many of whom are longtime skeptics of affirmative action. One of the ironies of the harvard case is while it pretends to be about discrimination against asianamericans in admissions, its really not. Its really an attack on affirmative action for blacks and hispanics. But many colleges feel that affirmative action is still badly needed in admissions. A recent analysis done by the New York Times found that black and hispanic students were more underrepresented at elite colleges than 35 years earlier. At the center of all this is a complex question with no easy answer. If, as Thomas Jefferson once posited, we should have a meritocracy, what he called an aristocracy of talent, then grades and test scores should be the deciding factor. But the opposing argument goes, those are just numbers that do not always tell the story of how deserving and how enriching students from different cultures, races, and backgrounds may be. But heres what happens when only Academic Merit is considered in admissions. Stuyvesant high school in new york city. It is one of the nations top public high schools. Graduate from here and you are likely to get into an elite college. So how do you get in . Take a single standardized test. It might sound fair but this is the meritocratic outcome. In a city thats 15 asian, stuyvesant is almost 75 asian. These demographics raise the question, can and should a standardized test decide who has access to the best schools . The way in which new york tried to deal with elite education and inequality is by having Something Like a fair test as a way of deciding who gets the elite education, and the consequence of that has been more and more unfair outcomes. In this years freshman class, only 7 black and 33 hispanic students were offered places out of nearly 900 coveted spots. If you want to admit by those kinds of tests, its at war with also wanting to admit more black and brown students. Theres a historic racial gap on average in these kind of academic test scores. Its one of the most consistent findings in social science. The gap is actually closing but its always been there. You have to dial down the importance of the test to dial up your racial diversity. Hay mayor bill de blasio has called to scrap the current admissions system in the name of diversity. The furious reaction from parents and lawmakers led the mayor to say he was going back to the drawing board. The attempt we made to address it was not it just was not effective and we have to come up with a new approach. Meritocracy versus diversity. Must one come at the expense of the other . The two are in conflict. Its really one of the big fights in higher education. Coming up next, my solutions. [woof] they can save you these. In fact, if you had a dollar for every time they said it, youd have a lot of dollars. Which makes it hard to believe, especially coming from a talking lizard. Pip, pip, cheerio look, all i, dennis quaid, know is that esurance is built to save you dollars without skimping on service. And when they save, you save. The only way to know how much is to get a quote. Chances are youll save time, paperwork, and yes, dollars. When insurance is affordable, its surprisingly painless. Everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. Expedia. For everyone you love. No matter what life throws down roomba is up for the challenge. Only roomba uses 2 multisurface rubber brushes that powerfully clean up debris on all your floors. And only the roomba i7 system empties its bin into allergenlock™ bags that trap 99 of allergens. Forget about vacuuming for months. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba™ paul Wireless Network claims americas most reliable network. The nations largest and most reliable network. The best network is even better . Best, fastest, best. Enough. Sprints doing things differently. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great, but dont just take my word for it. Try it out and decide for yourself. Switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. Let me begin with a confession. Im a member of the meritocracy. I went to an elite college and graduate school on full scholarship. And later served on the board of my alma mater. I benefitted from the merit base system and seen it from the inside. And know that College Admissions officers are decent and honorable people. Actually trying hard to balance all the factors they are asked to consider when passing judgment on 18 yearolds. And yet, there is obviously a problem with the meritocracy. The admission scandal revealed a small part of it. The critiques take one of two angles. The first is that america colleges dont practice what they preach. That merit based selection makes sense but in fact almost all colleges have retained or enhanced some of the old elements of admission. Such as legacy and athletic recruitment. Or fortake merit and lower the bar for well intentioned. To let in students at the expense offense others. What is wrong with the meritocracy it is not merit enough. There is another critique. More sweeping. It ark argues against the whole idea itself. It believes tests are arbitrary and not indicative of talent. Using them to organize and select society elite is the nuts and creates crazy and relentless pressure. And permanent exclusion for those on the outside. And because performance on the tests and associated rankings can be greatly enhanced by wealth and good education, it does produce a heredity rather than churning out elites based on ability. Both critiques have merit. I have to confess im drawn to the first. Idea that we need a better meritocracy. I understand the problems with the idea of merit. But what would you replace it with . The old system based on bloodline and birth . And or entirely subjective process in which Admissions Officers pick favorites . When you deal with tens of thousands of applications, and are able to admit a small number. You have to rely on some blunt instruments like tests and grades. Few have been able to propose a workable alternative to them. That means universities should live up to their ideas rather than admitting athletes and legacies unqualified. Focus on finding bright children from poor backgrounds. Who have great potential. But dont score as well on testing measures. Many elite colleges take in more students from the top 1 of the Income Distribution than from the bottom 60 . It cannot be those millions of students have no talent. Its just that we dont have a good enough mechanism to find them. Elite chejs should be taken it many more students anyway. Endowments have grown, they the class sizes from expanded very slowly. This emphasis on access should animate politicians. The biggest problem with the American Education is that is does very badly for poor kids. As dan points out. Comprehensive separates the rich from the rest in an unequal america. The educational gap between the rich and poor today is greater than between blacks and whites in 1954. When brown vs. Board of education out lawed school s segregation. The american system does not provide many paths for poor bright kids to move up. At the heart of the scandal of the declining social mobility. Finally, lets take to heart some of the broader critique of meritocracy. Many people succeed in life even though they do badly on tests. Tests are not the measure of ones true worth in life. Nor is where you went to college. The worst aspect is it allows people who rise to the top to believe they are better. They deserve their success. And those who do not do so well deserve their failure. It makes us smug and insensitive. Reproducing the worst aspects of the old. That is the greatest moral failing of meritocracy. And one that is best countered by recalling the wisdom contained in the declaration of independence. The bible and most of the worlds scriptures. All people are created equal. And are of equal worth, no matter where they got into college. Thanks for watching. [ turn around, look at me there is someone walking behind you turn around look at me there is someone look at me here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Its 11 00 p. M. On a friday
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