#25

Indeed, the mystique of admissions, the huge space it occupies in the middle-class psyche, is owed to a tacit belief that it is above the ordinary bargaining that drives human affairs. Applying to college is perhaps the only moment in a modern American life when it is possible to believe that one's fate is decided by one's genuine worth as a person. When the anonymous admissions officer scans your carefully assembled dossier, he is not supposed to be assessing your bank balance, your Mayflower lineage, or even your ability to do well on a test; he is supposed to be measuring you. It is no accident that "merit," now the key concept in college admissions, was once a theological term. Christ's imputed merit was what allowed the believer to get into heaven; the high school senior's personal merit is what gets him into the Ivy League.

Rigging the Admissions Game