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The Ivy League: Still a Playground for the Rich

Despite supposed efforts to reach out to the nation’s poor, Ivy League universities still overwhelmingly admit the children of the rich.

According to a recent story on Forbes.com, “At Harvard, 45.6% of undergraduates come from families with incomes above $200,000 — in other words, incomes in the top 3.8% of all American households.”

The fact that Ivy League schools are so fond of admitting rich kids is especially ironic in light of the overwhelming political liberalism on those campuses. For instance, more than 95% of all political donations from Ivy League faculty went to Obama in 2012.

We know that liberal Democrats are fond of casting themselves as champions of the poor and downtrodden. Why then do they admit half of their students from the wealthiest 5%? That’s a little hypocritical, don’t you think?

We also know that liberal Democrats love to promote “diversity,” when it comes to skin color, sexual orientation, or gender identity. But why are they unconcerned about the hugely disproportionate presence of the rich on their campuses? Again, it’s hypocritical.

Nothing wrong with rich kids. But there is something wrong with the duplicity of Ivy League liberals.

I attended Yale as a member of the lower-middle class. I remember hearing about all the exotic international vacations my classmates were taking over summer break. I remember how very few of them had ever held down a job as a teenager.

Even as a student, it struck me as ironic that the same professors who got up in class to talk about how the government needs to raise taxes and do more for the poor had no concern for the absence of the poor in their own classrooms. The east-coast liberal elite are happy to protect and perpetuate their own privilege while asking regular working people to hand over more of their paychecks to the government on behalf of the underprivileged.

You’ve heard of legacy admissions, right? That’s the extra boost Ivy League admissions offices give to children and grandchildren of their alumni. So don’t fool yourself into thinking that admission to these schools operates solely on merit.

Sure, they give a boost to students who are racial minorities. But many of those minorities are from rich families as well.

Do they reach out to recruit and admit working-class, middle-Americans? Not so much.

The statistics don’t lie.

At the end of the day, all that Ivy League talk about social justice is just talk. Just words members of the liberal elite say to in order to feel better about themselves.

Meanwhile, they keep the pathways of power, wealth, and influence safely locked away for themselves and their own wealthy, overwhelmingly liberal, children.

Next time you see a liberal Ivy Leaguer on some political talk show (like Harvard professor-turned Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance) telling you how you need to hand over more of your paycheck, along with, say, your freedom to make your own decisions about health care, to the government–all on behalf of the poor–remember this fact: When it comes to advocating for the poor, the Ivy League ruling class is completely without credibility.

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