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<p>Hmmm, you mean to say that they made money the old-fashioned way – they inherited it?</p>
<p>Note socioeconomic eliteness was a much bigger factor in admissions to elite (HYP) universities in earlier times. They strongly favored students from specific prep schools which were not necessarily academically elite, but had socioeconomically elite students.</p>
<p>It was only in the late 1950s that Princeton admitted a freshman class with majority public high school graduates; at the time, elite universities had internal controversies over whether they should admit more public high school graduates, who tended to be stronger academically, versus more prep school graduates, who tended to bring more parental donations with them. The remnants of this conflict are the still-existing legacy preferences in admissions. Of course, some of the prep schools have also upgraded their academics to elite levels since then, mirroring the elite universities’ greater emphasis on academic eliteness. It is also true that the socioeconomic elite can provide their kids with more opportunities to reach the academic elite level, though the kids have to have more of their own ability and effort than before, when inherited socioeconomic eliteness was a bigger factor by itself.</p>