Do wealthy students buy their way in universities

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<p>Simply being fullpay is small, small potatoes. I know 1st hand of one kid at DS’s private high school who got off an Ivy WL by donating a new academic bldg. I have a personal friend who got into one of the Claremont schools when parents donated a new wing to a bldg. Another kid at DS’s selective high school got into the high school when parents underwrote the major renovation of a bldg. These were all 8-figure “donations”, not just 7-figure chump change.</p>

<p>Then there’s Margaret Bass, whose circumstance of admission into Stanford made the Wall Street Journal:
<a href=“WSJ.com - For Groton Grads, Academics Aren't Only Keys to Ivy Schools”>http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/golden1.htm&lt;/a&gt;

One striking anomaly: Of nine Groton students listed as applicants to Stanford that year, Margaret Bass was the only one admitted. Ms. Bass’s grades placed her 40th in her Groton class [of a graduating class of 79 students], according to the Groton document. She had an SAT score of 1220, lower than those of seven of the eight other Stanford applicants. By contrast, almost 90% of Stanford freshmen rank in the top 10% of their high school class, while 75% have SAT scores of 1360 or better.</p>

<p>But Ms. Bass had an edge: Her father, Texas tycoon Robert Bass, was chairman of Stanford’s board and had given $25 million to the university in 1992. Mr. Bass has a degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He and his wife, Anne, are both Groton trustees.

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<p>When it’s an IRS-approved, tax-deductible charitable-contribution $30 million quid pro quo, it’s no longer called a bribe. It’s respectably called a “development case”. Pretty much all schools nowadays have an Office of Development. </p>