Originally Posted by aquinas
Excellent article.

Worth calling out is Part 4, The Privilege of an Education. Some of the more chastening quotes from that section are below to whet the appetite of any people considering reading the article.

Quote
My 16-year-old daughter is sitting on a couch, talking with a stranger about her dreams for the future. We’re here, ominously enough, because, she says, “all my friends are doing it.” For a moment, I wonder whether we have unintentionally signed up for some kind of therapy. The professional woman in the smart-casual suit throws me a pointed glance and says, “It’s normal to be anxious at a time like this.” She really does see herself as a therapist of sorts. But she does not yet seem to know that the source of my anxiety is the idea of shelling out for a $12,000 “base package” of college-counseling services whose chief purpose is apparently to reduce my anxiety. Determined to get something out of this trial counseling session, I push for recommendations on summer activities. We leave with a tip on a 10-day “cultural tour” of France for high schoolers. In the college-application business, that’s what’s known as an “enrichment experience.” When we get home, I look it up. The price of enrichment: $11,000 for the 10 days.
I've read that students writing about their summer travel does NOT impress admissions officers.

Quote
According to a 2017 study, 38 elite colleges—among them five of the Ivies—had more students from the top 1 percent than from the bottom 60 percent.
Measures of academic achievement such as SAT scores do rise with parental income, and Ivies are selecting from the right tail, so a substantial differential in representation by income group is to be expected for that reason alone. Another factor is that high-income parents are more likely to encourage their children to apply to more selective schools.

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell