Re: #2959
Of course, the residents of PA, IL, etc. who have the least influence to change things legislatively are the ones left out of those states’ public universities for cost reasons.
I understand all the reasons why the university benefits from having big donors just like I understand all the reasons why the university benefits from having outstanding athletes. But only one of those advantages can be purchased with a tax-deductible donation.
I didn’t consider “holistic” admissions to include the size of the tax-deductible donation made by the applicants’ parents to the school, but someone could argue that is a criteria that universities should consider in their “holistic” overview.
In a pure vision of things - where top professors, dorms, libraries, resources, labs and scholarships for so many didn’t cost so much money, you are 100 percent right!
But in the real world. These are all really expensive.
Mega donors have their children or descendants considered in very separate pile of maybe 10 applicants.
It’s not whispered stuff either. It’s very open among the top staff. School presidents provosts and deans of admissions. Working directly with development.
If the student is super strong it’s an automatic.
If they are competitive it’s a discussion and perhaps a Harvard “z list” type recommendation (politely suggest that a productive gap or pg year would be beneficial).
Or not qualified. To me not qualified would be any history of disciplinary issues, very bad recommendations or stats below the athletic minimum standard (which is still a very high quality)
So maybe it’s 5 admits 2 try again type. 3 ever so sorry.
We have turned into a society of box checkers, which is what the parents were trying to game…what box can my kid check, fraudulently of course.
Same goes for job applications these days. I’ve recently re-entered the market and can’t even start the first phase of an application without claiming my gender, race, ethnicity and disability status.
If we were to remove timed tests and give everyone extended time, yet report the times on the application, we would only be opening a new way to check the box to save the school from discrimination lawsuits:
Think of all the boxes to check with fast and slow now added to the mix!!
ok honeslty if the parents are already paying millions to get their kids into college, do the kids really need to go to college?? or do they just want the experience? And don’t some of them know it’s insane they got in
I feel like it’s a bit insane to claim the kids didnt know they were bribed into college…
Yep
@privatebanker “Mega donors have their children or descendants considered in very separate pile of maybe 10 applicants.
It’s not whispered stuff either. It’s very open among the top staff. School presidents provosts and deans of admissions. Working directly with development.”
I hear ya! Mega donors get special admissions consideration in exchange for being a mega donor. You just haven’t explained WHY the application of their children would be put in that pile. After all, since the donation is a tax deductible charitable gift, it would even seem improper to give anything in exchange for that gift.
Donors who donate $100 get a tax deduction. Donors who donate $25 million get a tax deduction and their child’s application considered in a very separate pile – something we know from this big scandal is very valuable indeed! At the very least, shouldn’t the value of that be deducted from their donation? : )
@observer12 People get tax deduction less than what they give (if the gift is cash, not junk). Millions of people get tax deduction in the last two months and next month. Do you have issue with that too?
Who is the American football coach that said there are three truths- your truth, my truth, and the real truth? Their truth are not my truth, and clearly, they are not yours either. As far as the real truth goes, I don’t think it exists.
I do have a work-around though. If I want to see privilege, I look at the college; if I want to check for ability, I look at the major. Most employers seem to think like-wise.
If students and parents think this way as well, much of the problem with college admission would be yesterday’s news. As I see it anyway.
@observer12
Why? Perhaps in anticipation of future gifts from the same donor or family.
MODERATOR’S NOTE
Deleted several posts as (A) off-topic and (B) belonging in the race thread. The fact that the race thread is temporarily closed is not a reason for the discussion to spill over.
Additionally, per ToS, emails are not allowed to be posted. If the email is also posted on a university website, you can link and quote a few lines, but ToS also prohibits excessive quoting of copyrighted material.
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Have any of the colleges, other than Yale, indicated how they might handle the students who are currently enrolled or who already graduated? It’s easy enough to reject the current applicants whose applications were falsified, but what’s happening with the rest?
Words of Wisdom for HS Seniors, their parents and all of us caught up in the frenzy…
What pieces have you found most helpful/insightful?
@privatebanker, excellent post! Among the many egregious issues that need to be addressed with this scandal, the SAT/ACT cheating loop must be closed. It saddens me to think of the kids who were falsely accused of cheating on the ACT (see CC thread in the test prep area) bc their score increased by a couple points when you have such blatant red flags that were not caught by ACT.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This thread is drifting off topic again. I will delete several posts (and yes, I most certainly will not be able to delete all off-topic posts). Please get back on the specific topic of the thread.
@Charpen, if what those students shared with your niece is true, imagine how many other non-elite but top public/private schools are getting these falsely, hyper-inflated test scores, especially the ones that give good merit based on these standardized test scores. It’s pretty sickening when you think about it.
I don’t know if this was discussed up thread but this is a can of worms that doesn’t seem to be getting much media coverage. How do online courses both in HS and college confirm that the student is the one taking the course?
This is actually quite surprising. There is an online service called straighter edge where students can take online courses and have credits transferred to the college. They require that students take a final while being monitored via camera. I once took an online course at a local open admit university. They required students take the final on campus. I can’t imagine that these elite schools couldn’t figure out a way to monitor online courses.
My kids’ high school requires proctored exams at the school for online courses receiving HS credit. I’m surprised any school wouldn’t require that.