The Real College Admissions Scandal

Before I make an argument about affirmative action, let me tell you how I was a beneficiary of it.

I wasn’t a student of color, but I grew up on a farm and attended a small, rural high school where there wasn’t much math and nobody had ever applied to an Ivy League college. My grades and scores were strong but not extraordinary.

But I did have one thing going for me. Elite colleges were looking for farm kids from low-income areas to provide diversity. So a school that I...