It's all about connections. Last winter I finally admitted that to myself and started treating the job market like the game that it is. Swallowing my pride, I applied for a highly competitive internship in a senatorial office, casually mentioning in my cover letter that my grandparents were friends of the senator. (I drew the line at having someone "make a call" for me.) However, my fears of earning an unmerited internship were quickly assuaged when I was rejected.

Then I learned that there are options for those of us whose connections don't deliver or even don't exist: A few American companies that bank on affluent parents worrying enough about their children's future to buy them internships. For a mere $6,000 - plus the non-refundable $35 application fee - University of Dreams guarantees qualified applicants a domestic internship with a top company in the industry of their choice. Founded in 2001, this internship placement program secures applicants the kind of positions that could lead to successful careers, while saving companies the trouble of sorting through thousands of résumés to find a few qualified applicants.

The company certainly knows how to sell it. The University of Dreams website features slideshows of satisfied customers, smiling on the beach, at theme parks and even with celebrities. They look successful and well coifed, and programs like the "Summer with the Stars" internship in Los Angeles boast "an experience filled with celebrity sightings, movie premieres, sunny skies and palm trees." And the photographs don't show anything as mundane as work.

Even without the fun in the sun, it's an attractive prospect to college students. In 2006, Vault, a company specializing in career counseling, reported that 82 percent of students surveyed said that having an internship was "extremely important" to future success. These positions are excellent résumé builders, offering fledgling entrepreneurs everything they need: experience, contacts or jobs. And considering Vault's revelation that 64 percent of students had been offered full-time jobs at companies with which they had interned, getting an internship may be the difference between success and failure.

However, $6,000 is a heavy price to pay for success, especially when your family doesn't have the expendable income to enroll you in programs like University of Dreams. Rather than striving to maintain a (relatively) even playing field, companies like this one are shamelessly proving the notion that everything's for sale - and profiting from it.

Let's be honest: It's not an even playing field anyway. There has always been nepotism in the job market, whether it was the storeowner passing his business down to his son or the uncle making a call to a powerful friend for his niece. Connections help, and businesses like University of Dreams know that - which is why they cultivate relationships with powerful companies like Merrill Lynch and Entertainment Tonight, then sell the spoils of these connections.

But many students can't afford taking an underpaid or even unpaid summer position, let alone pay for one. This only widens the income gap. Any qualified applicant can land an internship, but being an intern requires the financial security to make it through three months with little to no income. And because having an internship offers more and better opportunities, those who can afford internships tend to enter more lucrative careers.

Unfortunately, it only makes it harder for students with nothing to leverage. While none of the internships for which I'm applying mention cruising Rodeo Drive in the job description, there's no one sneaking my résumé to the top of the stack. Those of us who still believe in meritocracy are becoming increasingly panicked, plagued with earlier application deadlines and more stringent qualifications. It certainly explains the desperate willingness to pay thousands of dollars for a guaranteed "in" at desirable companies.

But, after all, University of Dreams only claims to give qualified applicants a push. To offer prospective clients (and skeptics) a first-hand look into the program, it encourages its students to blog about their thoughts and experiences. One of its featured posts, "Hand over fist oppurtunities (sic)," argues that people who worry about the $6,000 cost are only hurting themselves.

"I am really passionate about what University of Dreams does for people and their future," said the poster. "And this past week at internship mania I meet a ton of people that have so much ahead of them if they open the right doors. It really made me think about how many people are out there that could be missing out because they settle for a common internship."

Meritocracy just may be dead.