At Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Penn, Brown and 33 other top-shelf American universities, more students come from the top one percent than from the entire bottom 60 percent. Conversely, less than 0.5 percent of children from the bottom 20 percent attend elite colleges. In short, rich kids win the college sweepstakes.

But that's not all they win. They also win the entire game of life.

A recent Georgetown University report – "Born to Win, Schooled to Lose" – found that despite better grades, poor kindergartners are less likely to graduate from high school, let alone college, and less likely to earn higher salaries than their more affluent peers.

For poor kids, "dropout factory" high schools and student loans are inescapable nightmares. The former often leads straight to the University of Crime, and the latter haunts many into their 50s, standing as their No. 1 education-related regret.

All the while, for kids from more comfortable socioeconomic backgrounds, elite universities offer front, back and of course "side" doors for entry.

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