Jerome Karabel's sweeping historical analysis reveals how America's most prestigious universities have perpetually redefined 'merit' to serve institutional interests and reflect broader social anxieties. Spanning from the early twentieth century through the present, Karabel meticulously documents how Harvard, Yale, and Princeton shifted from academic criteria to 'character' assessments specifically to limit Jewish enrollment, then later embraced diversity initiatives while maintaining advantages for athletes, legacies, and donors. Drawing on unprecedented access to admissions archives, internal memos, and committee deliberations, Karabel exposes the behind-the-scenes negotiations that shaped each era's selection criteria. The book traces how these three institutions served as gatekeepers to American power, with their admissions policies both reflecting and reinforcing class hierarchies. Karabel, a Berkeley sociologist who has studied educational inequality for decades, presents case studies of specific applicants and reveals how subjective measures like 'leadership' and 'well-roundedness' have consistently favored privileged backgrounds. Readers will discover how the SAT was initially promoted as a democratizing force before becoming another barrier, and how affirmative action emerged partly from universities' own interests in appearing progressive. This thoroughly researched work illuminates the gap between meritocratic ideals and institutional realities, offering essential context for understanding ongoing debates about college admissions, legacy preferences, and who gets access to elite education in America.