Last week, the sting operation dubbed Operation Varsity Blues exposed a long list of well-heeled and well-known parents who rigged the college-admissions process, in part by paying proctors and ringers to take or correct tests for their kids. Not long after news of the scheme broke, critics rushed to point out that celebrity parents like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman didn’t need to break the law to game the system.

For the ultra-rich, big contributions might get their name on a science building and their offspring a spot at a top-tier school—an option California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently called “legal bribery.” Even the moderately wealthy can grease the admissions process with extensive SAT tutoring or, more problematically, college application essay editing.

In the admissions process, there’s a high premium on the personal statement, a 500-word essay submitted through the Common Application, about some foible or lesson, which aims to give readers a better sense of the student than, say, a standardized test score. More than one university and advising blog rank the essay among the “most important” aspects of the process; one consultant writing in The New York Times described it as “the purest part of the application.”

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People have to stop acting shocked when rich people use their money and power to get kids into elite universities. If you're brown, good at sports or rich, you can get admitted into any school in this nation — even if your grades are atrocious.

It's terrible for the people who actually have to bust their tail for years to get into these places.