I believe you should re-examine your indignation. One window into the favoritism of these schools is legacy admissions. For instance, about 10-30% of Ivy admi

I believe you should re-examine your indignation. One window into the favoritism of these schools is legacy admissions. For instance, about 10-30% of Ivy admissions are to legacies, and on average these legacies have lower scores than ordinary admissions. Another window is the favors offered to large donors. My wife worked in fundraising for an Ivy. There was no end to the coddling of doddering old donors, by the university president all the way down through deans and managers of large facilities. There was a dossier on each and every significant donor, maintained by a dedicated research staff, and specific people who were tasked with maintaining and improving relationships with large donors through favors. ("Large" wasn't that large, a $1M gift would be very, very large.) One reference point here is the admission of Jared Kushner to Harvard. To return to the matter at hand, is it not at least possible that the relevant Dean made an offhand comment to the professor that it was certainly a pleasure to see that the son of $BIG_DONOR was taking Latin this term? A professor who wanted to please the Dean (don't underestimate the appeal!) would get the hint. A professor who didn't get hints like this might not find legacies enrolled in their class. A Dean who didn't know how to finesse these opportunities might get rotated out to another position. Yes, I knew a student like this, whose father would fly in and have a conversation with the Dean (not Harvard, but close enough).