This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shimita Bassu. Today, the problem with elite colleges.

The top universities in America

The top universities in America carry a lot of weight, symbolism, all over the world.

They mean something.

Oh, you went to Princeton? You must be smart. You must be hardworking. You must be deserving.

You must be dot, dot, dot, well you mustn't be anything other than wealthy.

Evan Mandri has been writing for years about admissions practices at elite schools.

There are pathways and I don't think people realize how common these pathways are that are basically

available only to the wealthy disproportionate chair of whom we're white.

Evan is a Harvard graduate himself.

He's also a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice,

which is part of Cuny, the City University of New York.

Where more than half of the students come from families making

less than $30,000 a year.

He's also the author of the book Poison Ivy, How Elite Colleges Divide Us.

There is so much conversation right now about affirmative action,

and whether it's fair or not fair. But Evan says we're talking about the wrong thing. The real problem

with the admissions process isn't how much it favors disadvantaged students. It's how much preference they give to kids with lots of advantages,

from wealthy families.

I don't know what perfect justice looks like.

I think reasonable minds can differ on affirmative action, but I know that doing

affirmative action for Rich White's is unjust, so let's stop doing that.

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