ABSTRACT
Due in part to the unequal distribution of the college payoff and the high selectivity of elite institutions, many parents now believe that one of their main tasks is to get their kids into the "best" colleges. This chapter shows how the competition to get into the most highly ranked colleges has transformed one of the most fundamental institutions of human civilization: the family. Instead of spending their energies on trying to make our economic and educational systems more equal and fair, parents and children are trying to outcompete everyone else. As a classic case of the tragedy of the commons, where each individual thinks only about getting the most out of a shrinking resource, everyone ends up losing. The anxiety caused by economic inequality and competitive college admissions reaches down and affects many aspects of the relation between children and their parents.
