"But while these are overt ways to provide advantages for the wealthy, there are far more insidious and subtle methods of skewing the admissions process. Take early admissions. Early admissions account for 35 percent of the incoming class at Duke this year, 20 percent at Brown, 50 percent at Yale and 40 percent at Stanford."

While he makes a good point, the author doesn't note that both Harvard and Princeton recently (~2006) ended their early applications programs completely, to much fanfare. We can hope that other schools will follow their lead soon.