I've heard some stories of poor white men getting into elite colleges and going on to have upper middle class incomes, or higher incomes due to their education, but now their own offspring cannot attend as they are seen as "not needing it as much as a first generation immigrant or a poor student or an inner city minority student".
Article: How They Really Get In
About getting into college:
...most common among liberal arts colleges and some of the most competitive private universities -- results in a focus on non-academic qualities of applicants, and tends to favor those who are members of minority groups underrepresented on campus and those who can afford to pay all costs of attending.
I hear that students from foreign countries who are wealthy and pay full tuition are loved by colleges and that they are relied upon to fund the colleges, so the colleges can give financial breaks to first generation American immigrants, other minorities and even females. Thus hard working American non-wealthy kids may be passed over in favor of a rich foreign kid. Seems to me the population that will have the hardest time getting into college are second generation (or more) white males with non-millionaire parents.
If you are interested in this topic I suggest you read the full article. I was going to quote more of the article here but there is so much important stuff in it that I was quoting almost the whole article. Please go read it.