> If colleges charged $10,000,000 and offered no aid, then getting in would mean absolutely nothing, except that your parents were rich.<p>Isn't that the point? You can acquire the knowledge for free, but not the network, and not the "I'm like you" stamp that will open doors. Germans call it Stallgeruch, literally stable smell. People take a whiff to see whether you smell as if you are from the same stable they are from. If you are like them, the probability is high that you will share their worldview, ambitions, general moral concepts and so on, so being from the same social class, having been educated at the same type of school etc is just a shortcut for similarity.