U Penn and Donald Trump

This week I laughed a little bit when I learned that President Trump's brother was best friends with Trump's UPenn admissions interviewer. The episode, of course, smacks of yet more Ivy shenanigans.

The episode is interesting to me for several reasons. Like Trump, I went to Penn. Unlike the Donald, the Douglas did not come from scads of money. I would like to think that I earned my admission to the University of Pennsylvania based on my talents and my abilities. Because I do come from the lower middle class, I always want the doors of Ivy admissions to remain open to people who are not the children of the elite.

Now, in addition to having gone to Penn, I am an alumni admissions interviewer for the school. As a volunteer, I've interviewed about 85 candidates for admission to Penn. Very few get in. I think the admissions rate now is around 9 percent. Now, I can say that I've never known any of the students I've interviewed. If I had recognized any name that popped on my interview list, I would have declined the interview.

Admission to these kinds of schools should be based on merit and achievement not on connections. Now, of course, there's an argument to be made that you won't be able to do the studying or extra curriculars that you're going to need if you don't come from money. And there's truth in that claim. So, even if there isn't outright hanky panky going on with admissions, one could argue that admission to such an institution is always already kind of predetermined through parental finances.

This is argument is somewhat true. I've always recognized what an anomaly I was in terms of admissions. I was from Erie, PA, a geographic hook. I went to a relatively inexpensive Catholic school that historically sent kids to Penn (not a lot, but some). While my parents were teachers, I was an only child. We didn't vacation around the world, but there was always money for things that were important. My parents were married until they died. That's unusual today. Thus, there was both financial and emotional stability in my household. You really don't have to come from bucket loads of money to get into an Ivy, but you probably need a family that can provide stability and money for opportunities.

I'm very lucky I had both.