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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know of two kids who have gone to Harvard and NYU this way, respectively. Dumb as rocks. Rich as f*ck. Did a gap year and then miraculously got in. The one dad insisted on referring to it as a “postgraduate year”. Kids were in prep schools in Boston/Philly. The one kid played hockey in New England and the other one did some sailing thing for a year.

It is a PG year if they were enrolled in PG programs a prep school. This has gone on for years.

[Anonymous]

this is why the most expensive boarding schools have a PG year- duh! did you think kids just wanted another year of high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you are all ignoring are the reasons they do this.

Do you think it was a mistake for Harvard and Yale to admit Al Gore and GW Bush even though they has subpar academic performance?

Should they have been rejected?

uhh.. yes?

Except Gore's SAT score puts him about the middle of pack for when he was admitted (1350---that was a really good score pre 1995, he was mid 60s). Bush was significantly lower.
So you can argue that Gore was "average" for his admission.
Bush however definitely got in sole based on family name

The GWB hate re his HS performance from 50 yrs ago is hilarious. Different era. Do you know what % of the Andover class went to Yale back then?
Regardless, seems the Yale admission folks made a wise choice given there have only been 45 college matriculants in the ~250 yr history of the USA (hundreds of millions of applicants?) to rise to a rather important position?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid who got into Harvard via the z-list, although no one ever called it that. She came from an elite boarding school, applied early, got deferred, and put on the wait list. The family had made it clear prior to the admissions year what their donations would continue to look like. Before April decisions came out, her (legacy, undergrad and grad multiple times over) family was told quite specifically how things would work- she received a waitlist notification as expected, but it was understood that she would be in. Once the class was “set”, she was officially admitted.

I know all of this because her family members are longtime acquaintances and quite indiscrete. The process was repeated for a graduate program.

BS.
Its nearly as bad as the urban myth about the girlfriend who peed in a sink which fell off the wall and she was found knocked out on the floor.

Try harder.

It’s not BS and it would be very fun for me to put her full name and parents’ name here. Don’t worry, she’s safely off the job market and won’t be competing with your little darling now that she did her token 3-year post-HBS stint at a job and married a consultant from her class.

I don’t know why people are so reluctant to believe that bad shady unfair stuff happens, but I appreciate this PP’s sincere optimism that the world is a land of aboveboard dealings and meritocracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is why the most expensive boarding schools have a PG year- duh! did you think kids just wanted another year of high school?

Everyone does this!!
It’s the 5th year!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is why the most expensive boarding schools have a PG year- duh! did you think kids just wanted another year of high school?

Everyone does this!!
It’s the 5th year!!

Just the wealthy. Yes many privates have 1-2 of these kids each year who go on to boarding school for the PG/5th year ….sometimes to wait for that recruiting spot to open up at the Ivy of choice for their sport….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White donating 20 million to Harvard to get in bad.

Black getting cause black is bad

Asian unless Harvard 100 percent Asian unfair.

Athletes are bad

Hispanic getting in bad

It is all nonsense. Each group only wants their own group in. No one cares if fair they just want their group to have an advantage

how about fair clear transparent rules for everyone?

So you want the government to step in and dictate these rules?

Yes just like the government is providing them funding and humongous tax benefit

This is such BS. No the government is not "providing them funding". The are funding research though grants awarded to individual academics who apply for it, and for which they get the results.

Technology Transfer is the means by which research findings are transferred to the private sector for potential development into products and processes. Products developed from university technology transfer include the gene splicing technology that effectively created the biotechnology industry, new Internet search engines, and improved building materials.

Since the 1980 enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act, the federal government has allowed universities and other nonprofit organizations to patent and retain title to inventions created from research funded by the government. Universities, in turn, must:
• offer to license the rights to innovations to industry;
• use any remaining income, minus the costs of technology management expenses, for scientific research or education;
• share any future income from the patent with the inventor; and
• provide the federal government a nonexclusive, irrevocable license to the invention.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED517263.pdf

As for the tax benefit, every church, charity, country club, PAC, the NRA, the ACLU, the boy scouts, and more receive the same tax treatment. Should we get to tell them what to do? Because I would be up for that.

But if not then stop making that silly point.

WTF right there in bold.

Also government tells those organizations not to discriminate.
In fact this year, Supreme Court ordered colleges not to use race in admission.
Government do tell them what not to do.

Trying to reply respectfully here... not sure if there is a language barrier making it harder for you to understand.

The federal government does not fund private colleges. Researchers for colleges apply for grants for specific research, and if those grants are awarded, the government and private sector benefit. They get something in return. It's not budgeted money they get to use for whatever they wish. Read what I quoted and the linked PDF if you care to understand. It's like being hired for a job.

And yes, the colleges need to follow laws in admissions, as interpreted by the supreme court. Not sure why that is even brought up. This thread is about Z-list type admissions of legacies, donors, development admits, and the like.

WTF are you talking about it's right there

"the federal government supports about 60 percent of the research performed at universities. In 2009, that amounted to the federal government supporting about $33 billion of universities’ total annual R&D spending of $55 billion."

Stop sending my tax to the universities and they can do whatever they want

Not sure about you, but I personally don't want to live in a world where we don't have the benefits from all the research done at universities (for medical, science, and all other topics). Research done at universities is "cheap" vs having it done in industry. Universities are also where some of the best and brightest minds are for doing this research---they certainly aren't there for the pay (even at the professor level) , they are there because they love the research and work best in that situation. we as a society benefit greatly from this research, much of it groundbreaking.

As a PP stated, please also stop giving tax breaks to churches, NRA, etc. Because apparently we now get to dictate taxes and beneficiaries.

Sure so they can do research with federal funding and at the same time have fair admission for the citizens

They do. Fair admissions isn't whatever you think suits your kid best. Your kid can go to college and get a degree. No one is preventing that. It truly does NOT matter where the degree comes from in most cases.

NOPE.
You also thought discriminating Asians were fair. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid who got into Harvard via the z-list, although no one ever called it that. She came from an elite boarding school, applied early, got deferred, and put on the wait list. The family had made it clear prior to the admissions year what their donations would continue to look like. Before April decisions came out, her (legacy, undergrad and grad multiple times over) family was told quite specifically how things would work- she received a waitlist notification as expected, but it was understood that she would be in. Once the class was “set”, she was officially admitted.

I know all of this because her family members are longtime acquaintances and quite indiscrete. The process was repeated for a graduate program.

BS.
Its nearly as bad as the urban myth about the girlfriend who peed in a sink which fell off the wall and she was found knocked out on the floor.

Try harder.

It’s not BS and it would be very fun for me to put her full name and parents’ name here. Don’t worry, she’s safely off the job market and won’t be competing with your little darling now that she did her token 3-year post-HBS stint at a job and married a consultant from her class.

I don’t know why people are so reluctant to believe that bad shady unfair stuff happens, but I appreciate this PP’s sincere optimism that the world is a land of aboveboard dealings and meritocracy.

No one cares .Except you.

[Anonymous]

Shocking! /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:isn't this what one of the Obama kids did?

No. Malia Obama took a year break, but was admitted for fall the first year. She just smartly chose to take a year off, because it was 2016 when she graduated HS. Taking a year off meant her dad would not longer be in the White House when she started college, and I suspect she wanted to enjoy college being a bit more out of the spotlight (or at least as much as you can when you still have secret service agents with you everywhere you go).

And Malia Obama is not a "George W bush" getting into an Ivy by legacy but not really that smart. She's a smart kid, parents were both top Harvard Law grads.

Yup I'm sure the name 'Obama' played a huge role.

I'm certain it did. However, she had the resume to be competitive even if it were Name Blind application. The Obama kids are really smart and excelled at school. They are NOT a GWB situation where he definately only got in because of family name---he did not have the grades. Obama girls were A students at Sidwell. Both parents were tops at Harvard Law. Smart parents tend to push their kids to excel, yes with tons of privilege along the way, but the kids do work hard.

did they reveal their grades and SAT scores?

Yeah---Barack graduated Top 15% of Harvard Law. That's revealing "Grades". Despite what you want to think, he's extremely smart. Despite what you are implying, Harvard and the likes are not just accepting a URM without the academics to support that.

I meant the daughters.
Looks to me got in backdoor and had easy major - visual and environment studies

Environmental Studies had lots of prerequisites in other sciences. It’s not physics, but it’s a solid major. There’s math involved at the upper levels.

[Anonymous]

And yet, people continue to apply in record numbers. It’s almost as if the concentration of wealth and power at these schools is the real reason behind their desirability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet, people continue to apply in record numbers. It’s almost as if the concentration of wealth and power at these schools is the real reason behind their desirability.

Because those who are powerless cannot change the dynamic.

If those colleges didn't have legacy and the concentration of power in their alumni, then those colleges wouldn't be so popular. They keep it this way because it benefits them.

If they didn't have this power, students would apply to different colleges, and the rat race of college admissions wouldn't be so out of control.

[Anonymous]

Lots of schools do it. Binghamton has a program with community college down the road.

They actually let you live in dorms go to CC one year and if get a certain GPA get into Binghamton automatically and crèches transfer.

American for daughter said she can go after first semester.

This is common. American outright said x amount of students drop out after six months or transfer. They offer higher up people on wait list this deal.

Usually if a really good school you are backfilling for historical dropouts and transfers and paying full tuition.

My college we lost to transfers and drops outs a decent amount by junior year and backfilled with a local CC college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:isn't this what one of the Obama kids did?

No. Malia Obama took a year break, but was admitted for fall the first year. She just smartly chose to take a year off, because it was 2016 when she graduated HS. Taking a year off meant her dad would not longer be in the White House when she started college, and I suspect she wanted to enjoy college being a bit more out of the spotlight (or at least as much as you can when you still have secret service agents with you everywhere you go).

And Malia Obama is not a "George W bush" getting into an Ivy by legacy but not really that smart. She's a smart kid, parents were both top Harvard Law grads.

Yup I'm sure the name 'Obama' played a huge role.

I'm certain it did. However, she had the resume to be competitive even if it were Name Blind application. The Obama kids are really smart and excelled at school. They are NOT a GWB situation where he definately only got in because of family name---he did not have the grades. Obama girls were A students at Sidwell. Both parents were tops at Harvard Law. Smart parents tend to push their kids to excel, yes with tons of privilege along the way, but the kids do work hard.

did they reveal their grades and SAT scores?

Yeah---Barack graduated Top 15% of Harvard Law. That's revealing "Grades". Despite what you want to think, he's extremely smart. Despite what you are implying, Harvard and the likes are not just accepting a URM without the academics to support that.

I meant the daughters.
Looks to me got in backdoor and had easy major - visual and environment studies

Environmental Studies had lots of prerequisites in other sciences. It’s not physics, but it’s a solid major. There’s math involved at the upper levels.

Big difference from Environmental Science or Engineering.
Anything with 'Studies' is usually BS easy major exactly for the types of people.

[Anonymous]

Who care? Who wants to go to school with a bunch of nerds anyway?