> get recommendation letters from important people, stack their resumes with extracurriculars, and use the right slogans in their admissions essays. They have “polish.”
Or they just completely fake it, like a few cases that were discovered a few years ago. [1]
Let's be honest though. Those with less "polish" that would be admitted on purely objective/anonymous merit might even excel academically at the university, but they would be excluded by the very same social games being played here.
Sometimes they might even be told that explicitly but usually an excuse will be concocted.
The real question should be:
> What is more cruel, excluding them early on or allowing them to "win" but then ignore them completely when the benefits of that are to be distributed?
Or they just completely fake it, like a few cases that were discovered a few years ago. [1]
Let's be honest though. Those with less "polish" that would be admitted on purely objective/anonymous merit might even excel academically at the university, but they would be excluded by the very same social games being played here.
Sometimes they might even be told that explicitly but usually an excuse will be concocted.
The real question should be:
> What is more cruel, excluding them early on or allowing them to "win" but then ignore them completely when the benefits of that are to be distributed?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal