Not sure there was anything new or surprising here.
Or, one reader liked to see Calc on a transcript, and would automatically score those students higher.
Or, one reader liked to see performing arts on a transcript, and would automatically score those students higher.
Both true stories, btw, as reported by a UVa admissions rep on cc years ago. He/she was the latter, and her colleague was the former.
Except that they don’t (obviously), otherwise they would have long ago. 
@lookingforward Of course, I realize that. I didn’t say all kids of upper income professional families get admitted. In the aggregate, they start with some advantages - there is nothing controversial about that. We are not upper income, but my own kids have started w/ advantages by having college educated parents. It doesn’t mean all upper income kids are going to Stanford, Harvard or Chicago. With single digit schools, the majority of kids in all groups are going to be rejected. And upper income kids can have hardships, and lower income kids can be in a better place than family income might indicate. For example, I live in a college town, and some of the lower income, immigrant families are here for one parent to get a PhD. The other parent can’t work because of visa issues. The children of these families are obviously in a different position from lower income, immigrant families that might have fled a war, for example.
However, the Ivy League and other super-selective private schools do tend to have about half of their undergraduates from no-financial-aid families (presumably with incomes $200,000+, so top 2-3% or so income). Except for Columbia at 30%, it looks like all of the Ivy League schools have under 20% of undergraduates receiving Pell grants (meaning approximately from below median income families).
Popping in on this one! I DO think the diversity of an admission staff leads to a better review process and decisions, but we don’t “score” any component of the application. That’s more apt to happen at private schools.
FWIW, the data about the school comes right off the High School Profile that most counselors send with transcripts. Context is important and those help us calibrate to read each file. It’ll explain curriculum options and restrictions, grading, and methodologies for calculating GPA and rank (which we all know vary dramatically!). If you haven’t seen the one that goes out from your school, you can get it from your counseling office.
Another factor that may play into the Adcom’s decisions is alumni interviewers. I think my son would have been far better off to interview at the colleges than being interviewed by alumni. I’m thinking of one particular college that I won’t name. That interviewer took some initiative, contacting the school, comparing my son with other grads from the high school over the years, and ending the interview with a disparaging comment to me! In short, he had an attitude, and there was no rapport in that interview between the alum and my son.
No matter at this stage. But I think this can be a random factor that works for the good or for bad, and is independent of the paper record.
I also suspect–don’t know–just suspect—that colleges like kids who have interacted with those different than they are. So, the middle or upper middle white kid who attends a public school with lots of “URMs” might get a tiny uptick because he’s less likely to freak out than a similar white kid who lives in a nearly all white suburb and goes to an almost all white school when he gets a URM roommate or resident advisor from the inner city. On the flip side, an amazing percentage of the poorest URMs went to prep or independent schools, often through programs like Prep for Prep, A Better Chance, etc. or attended urban public magnets. An African-American kid who did well at Deerfield or Boston Latin is going to have fewer adjustment problems, both academically and socially, than the kid who went to an almost all URM high school and lives in a segregated neighborhood.
More recently, private schools have started reaching out to the last type of kid through the Posse program, which is designed to limit their social isolation.
@ucbalumnus It is important to note that for many Ivy League universities, you can still get a “full ride” with a much higher income than allowed by Pell Grants. And many other elite colleges–Barnard, Amherst, Columbia–are doing everything possible to attract low income students. The fact that enrolment figures are not higher is not for want of resources or opportunities. Unfortunately many school counsellors devote tremendous energy to dissuading students from applying to these universities.