College admissions - the high price of higher education

The indictments of celebrities and CEOs in a sweeping FBI investigation into a college admissions scandal has raised questions about the advantages – on both sides of the law – that exist for the children of moneyed parents.Beyond bribes and admissions fraud, a network of legal options has long existed for parents who aim to leverage their wealth into their children’s success.“You can turn wealth and money into better higher education,” Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said. “By the time some of these kids are applying to college, their resume, quite frankly, looks better than mine.”The advantages begin at birth, Reeves said. Families who have the means can afford private schools or the costs of moving to a district with elite public schools -- a cost working class families often struggle to bear. Reeves says that school choice, coupled with private tutoring and test preparation, gives the students a demonstrable advantage before they’ve even begun applying to elite institutions.“It means that if you win the lottery of birth, you’re going to be way more college ready at 18 than a kid born into a less affluent background,” Reeves said.