As a high schooler applying to college, I watched in horror as Operation Varsity Blues, the biggest admissions scheme ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, brought the downfall of Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. The investigation shed light on wealth and other factors that students themselves have no control over, but a much more devastating system pervades college admissions: affirmative action.

The basis of affirmative action, seeking to give historically discriminated-against students an equal opportunity in college admissions, had noble intentions. A movement born from the civil rights era and the time of Martin Luther King Jr., affirmative action was critical in allowing minorities to attend exceptional universities.