Harvard has a secret back door for ultra-rich kids with lousy grades

[Anonymous]

Spring admittance is another loophole.

[Anonymous]

I know a few Cornell guaranteed transfers. They are super bright kids but attend top privates that have an average GPA of 3.5.
They'll do great at Cornell but their traditional GPA would bring down the stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vandy does this too.

Mostly for new donors/big name CEOs.

+1

Yale, too.

Actually, many top schools do this OP - you are just finding out about this??

Y'all are naive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any school with a study abroad entry program where kids are students at foreign university (Northeastern, Boston U) also utilize not including the data in freshmen stats.

Those kids are generally full pay but not big donors.

This is a totally different situation, and the kids in those programs that I know most certainly have top grades. Certainly you are not trying to make this into yet another hater thread - I know many, many students who were not admitted (but were certain that they would be!)

[Anonymous]

All schools do this. An in-law's kid did this to attend SMU. Was a legacy there and could not get in otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All schools do this. An in-law's kid did this to attend SMU. Was a legacy there and could not get in otherwise.

As has been pointed out already, proportionally, it hurts unhooked applicants of selective schools MORE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does Harvard University do when faced with well-connected applicants — the children of mega-donors or other highly influential people — who have less-than-ideal SAT scores and GPAs?

The put them on the Z-List, according to a college admissions coach.

That means the students are advised to matriculate after taking a gap year, making them so-called “data ghosts” — meaning their lackluster academic statistics are not reported in the incoming freshman class.

That way Harvard doesn’t take a hit to its stellar academic averages — or institutional rankings.

“If Harvard doesn’t want the student hurting their US News and World Report ranking with their GPA and test scores, they admit them through the Z list,” Brian Taylor, managing partner of Manhattan-based college admissions firm Ivy Coach, told The Post. (While Harvard’s Law and Medical Schools both pulled out of US News and World Report’s college rankings, the university at large has not.)

“It often means that the student really doesn’t qualify for admission on their own.”

Although Harvard is the only school with a so-called “Z-List,” Taylor said other elite schools exploit similar loopholes to get students with inconvenient stats in the door.
The most common way is exploiting the transfer process.

Because US News and World Report doesn’t count transfer students’ statistics in their ranking calculations, some schools funnel in lower-performing students that way.

According to Taylor, Cornell exploits a “guaranteed transfer” system in which applicants with sub-par test scores or GPAs are told to do their freshman year of college elsewhere then re-apply.

If they maintain a certain grade point average during their freshman year — typically a B-average — they’re guaranteed admission to Cornell as a second-year transfer student.

“I don’t think it’s right that Cornell does that. It’s not fair to their peer institutions,” Taylor said.

https://nypost.com/2023/11/06/news/harvards-secret-backdoor-for-ultra-rich-under-qualified-kids/

And your point is what? Because someone’s SAT score wasn’t great they are a drag on the student body? It’s not like transferring into Harvard is easy. You have to have had terrific grades at the college you transfer from. And last I checked how you actually do in college is a better predictor of how you do in college that the SAT is.

ok ok your smart kid is bad at taking tests

My kid hasn’t taken any tests yet. But, silly me, you know everything about me already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any school with a study abroad entry program where kids are students at foreign university (Northeastern, Boston U) also utilize not including the data in freshmen stats.

Those kids are generally full pay but not big donors.

Sounds much fair than big donor bit shot Z-list

[Anonymous]

Not a new concept. One of DCs friends got in this way a decade ago and it was a thing well before that. It’s just a different way to dole out legacy spots, which they aren’t likely to give up, so no impact on the general applicant pool.

.

[Anonymous]

Every school with low admissions rates and high stats does this.

[Anonymous]

Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any school with a study abroad entry program where kids are students at foreign university (Northeastern, Boston U) also utilize not including the data in freshmen stats.

Those kids are generally full pay but not big donors.

Is this true at Georgia tech?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think any school with a study abroad entry program where kids are students at foreign university (Northeastern, Boston U) also utilize not including the data in freshmen stats.

Those kids are generally full pay but not big donors.

Is this true at Georgia tech?

Many, many schools have these types of programs - UVA Wise, for one.

[Anonymous]

A lot of these schools also recognize that the NE boarding schools don't have the ridiculously inflated grades you see posted here.

[Anonymous]

My friend from HS had 2 parents and 1 step-parent who went to Harvard. She was offered this and studied abroad for a year. She was also brilliant and accomplished, so take with a boulder of salt that these students are undeserving.