Daniel Golden

It's a bit dry at times, but it really does expose just one more privilege that upper class, famous, well-connected white people have. My favorite part of the book is the chapter about Caltech, Cooper Union and Berea colleges. They are all 100% merit based and turn a totally blind eye to all other factors, and how they still get donations and they don't struggle financially whatsoever.

The book is good, it's actually made me feel almost guilty at being a legacy myself. Although I didn't go to an elite school by any stretch of the imagination, and I am more than certain I would have gotten into my alma mater regardless (I was in the top 15% of my HS class and got great scores on the SAT and ACT), but, still, I wonder about the blank on the application form where I wrote in my dad's name and class year.

Thinking about all of the privileges that the upper class is privy to makes my blood boil as well, especially the few times I made the mistake of reading the Weekend section of the Wall Street Journal.… (mere)

This is a very interesting book covering both foreign countries stealing intellectual property and recruiting spies from schools, and US agencies also looking to recruit students and professors. At times the book was a bit hard to follow as it seemed to jump from thread to thread without any warning. Also, for a book this size with such an impressive list of references, I expected more evidence of wrongdoing. The book really only covers a few cases (sometimes in too much unnecessary depth), and has failed to convince me that this is a huge problem.… (mere)