Yes, the United States is still the great meritocracy it's always been; but now, if you aren't brilliant or beautiful or both, there isn't much to do, because they can do it cheaper in Shanghai or Mumbai.

In July 2010 Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote a proposal in the Brennan Law Center blog for abolishing bar exams. In the early 2000s Elizabeth Wurtzel applied to Yale Law School and was accepted despite the fact that "… Her combined LSAT score of 160 was as Elizabeth Wurtzel put it 'adequately bad' … 'Suffice it to say I was admitted for other reasons' Ms. In her words


Bibliography
Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir (1994)
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (1998)
More Now Again: A Memoir of Addiction (2001)
The Secret of Life: Commonsense Advice for Uncommon Women (2004) (previously publiElizabeth Wurtzeld as Radical Sanity and The Bitch Rules).

She has a B. A. from Yale Law School.