单选题 In an ideal world, the nation's elite schools would enroll the most qualified students. But that's not how it (1) .Applicants whose parents are alums get special treatment, as (2) athletes and rich kids. Underrepresented minorities are also given (3) . Thirty years of affirmative action have changed the character of (4) white universities; now about 13 percent of all undergraduates are black or Latino. (5) a recent study by the Century Foundation found that at the nation's 146 most (6) schools, 74 percent of students came from upper middle-class and wealthy families, while only about 5 percent came from families with an annual income of (7) $ 35,000 or less.
Many schools say diversity--racial, economic and geographic--is (8) to maintaining intellectually (9) campuses. But Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation says that even though colleges (10) they want poor kids, "they don't try very hard to find them." (11) rural students, many colleges don't try at all. "Unfortunately, we go where we can (12) a sizable number of potential applicants," says Tulane admissions chief Richard Whiteside, who (13) aggressively and in person--from metropolitan areas. Kids in rural areas get a glossy (14) in the mail.
Even when poor rural students have the (15) for top colleges, their high schools often don't know how to get them there. Admissions officers (16) guidance counselors to direct them to promising prospects. In (17) high schools, guidance counselors often have personal (18) with both kids and admissions officers. In rural areas, a teacher, a counselor or (19) an alumnus "can help put a rural student on our radar screen," says Wesleyan admissions dean Nancy Meislahn. But poor rural schools rarely have college (20) with those connections; without them, admission "can be a crapshoot," says Carnegie Mellon's Steidel.