My teachers at Harvard included some of the foremost intellectuals of the era: George Wald, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist and peace activist; China scholar John Fairbank; Bernard Bailyn, historian of early America; and literary critics Northrop Frye and Walter Jackson Bate. Almost every night, it seemed, a presidential hopeful, foreign potentate, or prominent author gave a talk on campus. Renowned poet Robert Lowell spent a semester in residence at my dormitory, Dunster House. I once scaled the shelves of Dunster's library on a rickety ladder to fetch a volume of Baudelaire for him. Is it too much to ask that seats in the classrooms of such beautiful minds not be sold to the highest bidder but reserved for the students who earned them through their diligence and natural gifts?

  NOTES

  I am indebted to many confidential sources for providing or confirming information in this book. Where sources interviewed on the record are named in the text, they are not noted here to avoid repetition.

  While none of my Wall Street Journal articles on admissions are reprinted here in their entirety, quotations and other material taken from them are scattered through the text. In particular, much of the Duke University material in Chapter 2 is taken from “At Many Colleges, the Rich Kids Get Affirmative Action,” Wall Street Journal, February 20,2003. Some information in Chapter 4 on legacy preference is drawn from “Preference for Alumni Children in College Draws Fire,” Wall Street Journal, January 15,2003. Information and academic data for Groton School's class of 1998, used in several chapters, are from “For Groton Grads, Academics Aren't Only Keys to Ivies,” Wall Street Journal, April 25,2003. Much of the discussion in Chapter 7 of “life challenges” criteria at the University of California originally appeared in “Extra Credit: To Get into UCLA, It Helps to Face ‘Life Challenges,”” Wall Street Journal, July 12,2002. The section on the Supreme Court and legacies in Chapter 8 relies on “For Supreme Court, Affirmative Action Isn't Just Academic,” Wall Street Journal, May 14,2003.

  Except where otherwise noted, admissions data on individual universities—such as average SAT scores, acceptance rates, percentage of fresh-men who ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and proportion of students on financial aid—come from U.S. News&World Report's website, www.usnews.com. University endowment data are from the NACUBO Endowment Study, courtesy of Damon Manetta, manager, public affairs, National Association of College and University Business Officers. Data on individuals” wealth come from the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, available at www.forbes.com.

  INTRODUCTION: THETENNESSEE WALTZ

  3 IN A 1997 ARTICLE: David L. Evans, “The Pitfalls of a Pure Meritocracy,” Con-tempora Magazine, July 31,1997, p. 32.

  4 PRINCETON'S RAREFIED IVY EATING CLUB: J.W. Victor, former president of Princeton Inter-Club Council, confirmed that Lauren Bush and Caitlin Edwards were Ivy members. Justin Rockefeller said in an interview that he was in Ivy.

  6 POSTED TO LATIN AMERICA: See Daniel Golden and Charles Forelle, “Just How Far Does Diversity Go?” Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2003, p. A6, which describes how a Jewish student born in Panama qualified as Hispanic for purposes of law school admissions.

  8 IT SUSPENDED EIGHTH-GRADER: Bill Turque, InventingAl Gore (Boston: Hough-ton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 304-5. Turque confirmed in an interview that the marijuana incident took place in the Bishop's Garden.

  9 HIS NAME WASN'T EVEN LISTED: Josh Cherwin, spokesman for former vice president Gore, told me that Albert III did graduate. Harvard occasionally omits names of graduates from the commencement program at the family's request.

  10 INCOME AND WAGE GAPS: For a summary of research on economic stratification, see Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K. Miller Jr., The Meritocracy Myth (Lan-ham, Md: Rowman&Littlefield Publishers, 2004), pp. 52-65.

  10 “A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE”: The Economist, January 1,2005, pp. 22-23.

  11 ONLY 3 TO li PERCENT OF STUDENTS: For 3 percent, see Anthony P. Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose, “Socioeconomic Status, Race/Ethnicity, and Selective College Ad missions,” in Richard D. Kahlenberg, ed., Americas Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education (New York: Century Foundation Press, 2004), Table 3.1, p. 106. For 11 percent, see William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin, Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005), pp. 98-99. Bowen and colleagues also conclude that only 3 percent of students at elite colleges are “both first-generation college-goers and from low-income families.”

  11 BOTH WERE MEDIOCRE STUDENTS: For Bush's academic record, see Jerome Karabel, “The Legacy of Legacies,” New York Times, September 13, 2004, p. 23. For Kerry's, see Michael Kranish, “Kerry, Bush Grades Nearly Identical,” Boston Globe, June 8. 2005, p. 1.

  11 MAINTAINS A CHAPTER: All information on Cum Laude status of St. Albans graduates in this book was provided by David Baker, then the school's director of communications.

  12 COMMITTED $25 MILLION: “Celebration Marks Official Dedication of Frist Center,” Princeton Weekly Bulletin, November 6,2000.

  12 OPPOSES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: “Frist Shares Bush Position on University of Michigan,” Associated Press, January 17, 2003.

  16 Six DAYS AFTER: Furstenberg did not reply either to that email or to a follow-up email that I sent him asking if my intervention had been responsible for Jamie's admission to Dartmouth.

  16 A SUBSEQUENT NEWSPAPER REPORT: Anne Marie Chaker, “Bad News for Waitlisted Students,” Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2005, p. Dl.

  16 REFUSED TO HEAR: Lee Williams, “She Took It to the ‘Street,’” www.dailyprincetonian.com, February 28,2000.

  17 SUSPENDED FOR SEVEN MONTHS: Certification of Disposition, State of New Jersey v. William Harrison Frist Jr., Princeton Borough Municipal Court, July 12, 2004.

  19 SUGGESTED IN HIS DISSENT: Barbara Grutter v. Lee Bellinger, Supreme Court of the United States, No. 02-241. See Justice Thomas's discussion of legacy preference beginning, “Much has been made of the fact that elite institutions utilize a so-called ‘legacy” preference,” and accompanying footnote.

  19 GIVEN $25 MILLION: “$25-Million Bass Gift Applauds Stanford Contributions to Mankind,” Stanford News Service, June 13,1991.

  20 HEADMASTER RICHARD COMMONS: In September 2004, Commons warned Groton alumni that “the book may present information in a manner that is unfavorable to Groton.” In a second letter, on March 22, 2005, addressed to the “Groton Family,” he complained that I had been “contacting members of the Groton community” asking for “copies of specific issues of the Groton School Quarterly” The Quarterly lists academic honors and college destinations of Groton graduates.

  1: HOW THE “Z-LIST” MAKES THE A-LIST

  23 NO PRESS COVERAGE ALLOWED: I attended the dinner as a member's guest.

  24 THE FIRST ISSUE OF ITS NEWSLETTER: The committee's newsletter is called Resources.

  25 BY EXAMINING: Many COUR members are listed in Who's Who in America (New Providence, N.J.: Marquis, 2005). It provides names of children, which I then checked against Harvard alumni and student directories. I also found names and college affiliations of alumni children in Harvard class reunion reports, kept in the Har-vard Archives in Pusey Library. To identify children of COUR members who are neither alumni nor in Who's Who, I relied on confidential sources.

  25 AT LEAST 336: The number of COUR children accepted to Harvard was likely higher, as some of those admitted would enroll elsewhere.

  26 “LAST YEAR WE COMPLETED”: Harvard College Class of 1962 Fortieth Anniversary Report, p. 162.

  26 CHAIRS A $400 MILLION: Resources, May 2004, p. 9.

  29 ZOFNASS … DONATED: Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 2003-4.

  30 GIVEN GENEROUSLY TO HARVARD: Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 1998-99, and Development News, 2005, “Alumni and Friends of Radcliffe Fund Four Radcliffe Institute Fellowships.”

  31 REAPED $648 MILLION: Steven Syre, “A 648M Smile,” Boston Globe, May 3, 2005, p. El.

  32 ENDOW TWO PROFESSORSHIPS: Harvard University Gazette, October 24, 2002. 32 A HARVARD FUND-RAISING AWARD: “John Harvard's Journal,” Harvard Magazine, March-April 2003, p. 82.

  34 DONATED BETWEEN $500,000 AND $1 MILLION: Campaign Leadership Gifts, Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 1998-99; Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 2000-1.

  36 HAS GIVEN $30 MILLION: Interview with Albert F. Gordon.

  37 HER PARENTS GAVE HARVARD: Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 2003-4.

  37 NOTED: Harvard College Class of 1974 Thirtieth Anniversary Report.

  38 THE HARVARD CRIMSON REPORTED: Dan Rosenheck, “The Back Door to the Yard,”Harvard Crimson, June 6, 2002, p. Bl.

  38 AMONG OTHER DONATIONS: Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 2003-4.

  39 TOUTS DEFERRAL: William Fitzsimmons, Marlyn McGrath Lewis, and Charles Ducey, “Time Out or Burn Out for the Next Generation,” www.admissions.college. harvard.edu, 2000.

  40 CARIBBEAN VOYAGE: The Tell-Tale, fall edition 2001, volume 1.

  40 NOT IN THE TOP IO PERCENT: Celene was not in the Cum Laude Society, which at Nightingale-Bamford includes only the top 10 percent. Interview with Joyce Mitchell, director of college advising, Nightingale-Bamford.

  42 BY EXAMINING HONORS DATA: Honors for graduating seniors are listed in Harvard commencement programs, available at the archives in Pusey Library. I was unable to locate graduation information for a number of COUR children who enrolled at Harvard, probably because they either took longer than four years to graduate, dropped out, or transferred.

  43 BETWEEN $250,000 AND $500,000: Harvard College Fund Annual Report, 2000-1.

  44 “ONE OF THE LARGEST OWNERS”: Peter Grant, “Multifamily Affair: Kushner Aims to Be a Player,” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2000, p. BIO.

  45 25,000 APARTMENTS: Company overview, www.kushnercompanies.com.

  45 KUSHNER, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS BUSINESS ASSOCIATES: Jeff Pillets and Clint Riley, “Paying for Power: The Kushner Network,” Bergen Record, June 16, 2002, p. 1.

  45 ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS: A $250,000 payment to Harvard by the Charles and Seryl Kushner Charitable Foundation was recorded in a public filing for fiscal 2001 with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.

  46 NEARLY $100,000: The Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org.

  47 MAJOR GIFTS TO NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Interview with NYU spokesman John Beckman.

  48 NEVER CONSUMMATED: Interviews with Beckman and Alan Hammer, acting chairman of Kushner Cos.

  2: RECRUITING THE RICH

  52 MAUDE WAS NOT INDUCTED: Lawrenceville School provided a list of inductees.

  53 JOKED WITH PROTESTANT FRIENDS: Maude refers to the “WASP Club” in her entry in the 2001 Lawrenceville yearbook.

  53 BUNN VENTURES: Tim Landis, “What's in a Name? Plenty of History and Success If It's Bunn,” State Journal-Register, Springfield, 111., April 29, 1999, p. 7A. 53 MORE THAN A DOZEN: George W Bunn Jr., University of Illinois at Springfield Oral History Collection. Mr. Bunn told interviewer Sally Schanbacher in 1972 that “this last fall, our family sent the fifteenth boy to Lawrenceville.”

  56 “AUTOMATICALLY ADMITTED”: “Q and A: Rick Levin,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November/December 2004, p. 28.

  57 NONGOVERNMENTAL REVENUE: Voluntary Support of Education Survey, RAND Council for Aid to Education. Ann E. Kaplan, survey director, provided tables on sources of giving to universities.

  58 BARON MAURICE: “Phony Baron Given Three-Year Sentence,” Associated Press, January 31,1991.

  62 FUND-RAISING PROWESS: Susan Kauffman, “Duke's Money Machine,” Raleigh News&Observer, December 15, 1996, p. 1.

  62 GAVE ANOTHER $10 MILLION: Duke News Service, “Anne and Robert Bass Make Second $10 Million Gift to Support Undergraduate Education,” January 25,2001.

  64 ALL-LEAGUE HONORS: Martin London, letter to Stuart Karle, August 17, 2004.

  64 SENT INFORMATION: London letter.

  64 HIS ONLY CAREER TACKLE: Tim was redshirted in the 1995 season, did not play in a game in 1996, and recorded one tackle as a backup free safety in 1997, according to Stanford football records.

  65 FORD FOUNDATION: Interview with Howard E. Covington Jr.

  66 “ELEVATE DUKE”: Howard E. Covington Jr. and Marion A. Ellis, Politics, Progress and Outrageous Ambitions (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), p. 379.

  68 RAIDED YALE FAMILIES: For instance, although plumbing fixtures billionaire Herbert Kohler Jr. graduated from Yale, his daughter Laura Elizabeth Kohler went to Duke.

  69 FAMILY MEMBERS PLEDGED: Duke Policy News, “Sulzbergers Support Child Policy Program,” 1998.

  70 IMPRESSIVE CURRICULUM VITAE: www.pubpol.duke.edu/people/faculty/fleishman/fleishmancv.pdf

  71 ONCE OFFERED THE PRESIDENCY: Anthony Flint, “Brandeis Chooses Thier as President,” Boston Globe, May 6,1991.

  71 CONDUCTED A WINE TASTING: Interview with James Gorter.

  71 THE GORTERS LATER ENDOWED: “Filling Bass Chairs,” Duke Magazine, May-June 2001.

  73 HE ALSO OWNED OR HELD OPTIONS: I am grateful to Charles Forelle, The Wall Street Journal Boston bureau's resident math whiz, for poring over U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records to determine Fleishman's corporate compensation and stock holdings.

  75 A FRIEND AND POLITICAL SUPPORTER: Interview with Stephen Swid.

  75 BRODIE REBUFFED: Interview with Brodie.

  75 MITCH HART LEFT: Interviews with Hart and Brodie.

  77 “DUKE'S UNDER-CAPITALIZATION”: Robert Bliwise, “Duke's Master Builder— A Leader and Her Legacy,” Duke Magazine, July-August 2004.

  77 ONE-THIRD REDUCTION: Steven Wright, “Data Raises Admissions Questions,” Duke Chronicle, January 11,2001.

  78 “NEVER WANTED TO ADMIT”: Rachel Toor, Admissions Confidential (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001), pp. 209-11.

  82 NOT THE CUM LAUDE SOCIETY: Interview with David Miller, Lake Forest High School.

  3: THE FAME FACTOR

  85 DEPICTED: Jennet Conant, “School for Glamour,” Vanity Fair, February 1998.

  86 “PSYCHOPATH”: Jill Goldsmith, “Mouse Memo Blasts Ovitz,” Daily Variety, October 21, 2004.

  87 ON ITS WEBSITE: Parents Weekend 2004 Schedule of Events, brownparents weekend.rawdata.net/event_schedule.php.

  87 NINE HUNDRED STUDENTS PACKED: Maichael Janusonis, “Brown Honors Scorsese,” Providence Journal, January 28, 2003, p. 1.

  87 AMONG THE GUESTS: President Simmons joked that Hoffman and DeVito had disrupted her speech at Ovitz's house.

  92 ACCEPTED BY A SECOND IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITY: Princeton allegedly accessed Yale's admissions decision on Lauren Bush without authorization. Alexander Clark, Preliminary Security Report, Yale University Office of Undergraduate Admissions, June 20, 2002.

  93 “HUNTER-WARRIOR TYPES”: Peter Carlson, “The Relatively Charmed Life of Neil Bush,” Washington Post, December 28, 2003, p. Dl.

  95 VIED WITH HIS DAUGHTER'S CLASSMATES: Interview with Adam Vitarello.

  95 MORE THAN ONE-QUARTER: Brown accepted 196 of 763 transfer applicants in fall 2003, or 26 percent, according to www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/ranking. 100 “SHERMAN PRIZE”: Clyde Haberman and Albin Krebs, “Just an Ordinary Student,” New York Times, September 11, 1979, p. B8.

  100 ARRESTED DURING DEMONSTRATIONS: UPI, “Brown U. Says Amy Didn't Make Grade,” Newsday, July 19, 1987.

  100 LOITERING, AND DISORDERLY CONDUCT: Associated Press, “Fonda Daughter's Sentence: Public Service,” New York Times, November 5,1989.

  101 CHARACTER WITNESS: UPI, “Anne Brown, Socialite and Noted Author,” News-day, November 22,1985.

  103 ON ITS BOARD FROM 1988 TO 20oo: Gregorian curriculum vitae, provided by him.

  103 GIVEN THE LIBRARY $1 MILLION: Vartan Gregorian, TheRoad to Home: My Life and Times (New York: Simon&Schuster, 2003), pp. 290-91.

  103 SOPHIA LOREN WAS LOOKING: Interview with Eric Widmer.

  105 EXPELLED FROM BROWN: Ben Grin, “Putting Past Behind Him, Ted Turner ‘60 Builds Strong Relationship with University,” Brown Daily Herald, April 29,2004.

  105 LARGE WHITE CADILLAC: Juliette Wallack, “Zucconi ‘55 Remembered for His Character, and Car,” Brown Daily Herald, February 24, 2003, p. 1.

  106 TALE OF THAT VISIT: Interview with Eric Widmer.

  108 CAUGHT OFFERING: Katherine Boas, “Football Team Barred from Winning Ivy Title,” Brown Daily Herald, September 6, 2000, p. 1.

  108 COULD HAVE NO FURTHER CONTACT: Shannon Tan, “Zucconi ‘55 Moves to Development Office amid Ivy League Sanctions,” Brown Daily Herald, September 12, 2000, p. 1.

  108 “I AM AMUSED”: James H. Rogers, “Mail Room,” Brown Alumni Magazine, January-February 2001.

  108 “INSENSITIVITY TO QUALIFIED SONS”: Roger Williams, “Mail Room,” Brown Alumni Magazine, March-April 2001. 108 ORGANIST SOFTLY PLAYED: Interview with William Nicholson.

  109 $20-25 MILLION: “Witness: Ovitz Pay Play at Disney ‘Unreasonable,’” Dow Jones News Service, October 25, 2004.

  109 A $25 MILLION PLEDGE: Kenneth Weiss, “Ovitz Gives UCLA Hospital $25 Million,” Los Angeles Times, February20,1997, p. Bl.

  109 FALLEN BEHIND: The only major gifts—six figures or above—from the Ovitz Family Foundation to UCLA from 1997 to 2004 were $1 million in 1997, $1 million in 1998, and $500,000 in 2000, according to records the foundation submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. The New York Post reported on January 25, 2002, that UCLA was “frustrated by Ovitz's delays and now despaired of ever being fully paid.” 109 TYPICALLY GIVING EACH OF THEM: Form 990s, Ovitz Family Foundation. 109 OFFERED TO HELP PLACE: Bernard Weinraub, “Hollywood Ending,” New York Times, January 30, 2005.

  4: ENDURING LEGACIES

  118 THE BIGGEST GROUP: Interview with Daniel Saracino.

  119 ENDOWING A SCHOLARSHIP: Interview with Terry Desmond.