Agreed, and to some extent I would think you would want your most talented students to have access to network with students that have an "in" with the rich and

Agreed, and to some extent I would think you would want your most talented students to have access to network with students that have an "in" with the rich and powerful (whether that is hereditary or whatever). If you exclude some of those, ahem, less talented progeny you lower the value of some of these schools I would think for minorities, the less privileged, etc. eg. Wouldn't you want the next Granville Woods to have access to a VCs daughter or a Senators son?