The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America

Colleges fiercely defend America's deeply stratified higher education system, arguing that the most exclusive schools reward the brightest kids who have worked hard to get there. But it doesn't actually work this way. As the recent college-admissions bribery scandal demonstrates, social inequalities and colleges' pursuit of wealth and prestige stack the deck in favor of the children of privilege.



The Merit Myth calls out our elite colleges for what they are: institutions that pay lip service...