The problem that middle-class whites have is two-fold: (a) they're poorly equipped to game the system, and (b) that's not well-recognized by colleges. The poin

The problem that middle-class whites have is two-fold: (a) they're poorly equipped to game the system, and (b) that's not well-recognized by colleges. The point (I hope) of affirmative action is that colleges understand that minorities are relatively disadvantaged at jumping through the right hoops (private school pedigree, solid extracurriculars, SAT prep classes, etc.), so the colleges try to compensate for that. Rich idiots get a leg up simply by virtue of their being rich and well-connected, which makes explicit legacy favoritism their second layer of advantage. Your numbers support the increasingly popular (and very well-founded) idea that race-based affirmative action makes much less sense than that based on socioeconomic class.