This is orthogonal to the discussion about women, elite schools, and
motherhood but I still found it interesting:

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?051010crat_atlarge

Discussion of the origins of the byzantine admission
policies at elite colleges... some interesting allegations.
The final paragraph may be of interest to some:

"In the nineteen-eighties, when Harvard was accused of enforcing a
secret quota on Asian admissions, its defense was that once you
adjusted for the preferences given to the children of alumni and for
the preferences given to athletes, Asians really weren’t being
discriminated against. But you could sense Harvard’s exasperation
that the issue was being raised at all. If Harvard had too many
Asians, it wouldn’t be Harvard, just as Harvard wouldn’t be Harvard
with too many Jews or pansies or parlor pinks or shy types or short
people with big ears."

-anthony