“Points for grades, points for the SAT, points for the SAT II. Which isn’t really fair either. A black kid from South Central, who’s been dodging bullets to make it to English class, has more baggage than a white kid from Encino. Now if you don’t get into the UC the first round, you can appeal the decision and bring in all the extraneous stuff. So when you get right down to it, nothing’s completely objective.”

“I didn’t realize the process was so complicated.”

“Yeah, it is. Not so hard for me because you and Eema never really cared about the Ivies. I know if it were up to her, I’d go to Yeshiva University. So I was spared all this major league anxiety. But even in the Orthodox circuit, there’s intense pressure to go to good schools. Believe me, I’ve seen the most arrogant guys reduced to tears because of poor SAT performance.”

“So that explains services like Dr. Baldwin’s tutoring,” Decker said.

“A kid explained it to me like this: suppose a certain guidance counselor always sends the university top students. If you sat on the admissions committee, wouldn’t you trust his or her opinions?”

“Did the Baldwins write recommendations for the kids?”

“I suppose. I mean you can have lots of letters of recommendation in your applications. Supposedly, the ones that mean something are the ones from the teachers—the people who know your academic skills. But I’m sure that the right character references can tip the scales. There was a kid who graduated from Torah V’Dass about two years ago who got a recommendation from some honcho politico who, in turn, had gone to school with a man on the acceptance committee of the university that he was applying to. Now the guy was smart, but c’mon. A letter like that? It clinched it.”

“Did the Baldwins have that kind of muscle?”

“The Baldwins had a tag for working magic. I never thought about it, because I thought I was going to YU and that was that. But then this thing from Hopkins and Ner Yisroel came up: to do my last year of high school and my first year of college together. My whole perspective changed, people telling me how lucky I was. It wasn’t luck. It was Eema who pushed and pushed and pushed for them to consider me. That’s what you need, someone pushing for you. I was lucky, even if it means I got to wear a black hat.”

“It’ll match your hair.”

“Great!” he said stiffly. “I’ll be color-coordinated.”

“So having the Baldwins behind you meant something.”

“Definitely.”

“What about Ernesto Golding? What was he aiming for?”