Is your kid "manufactured"?

QuantMech
Sat, 01 Aug 2015 02:07:05 +0000

Arjun might have been totally fine once his dad left the campus.

To the extent that Stanford was really admitting “manufactured” students, and leaving Arjun out of it, I am inclined to blame the “nobody-ever-got-fired-for-buying-an-IBM” syndrome. (My spouse was actually told that by an IBM salesman at one point, when making a major computer purchase.)

In its admissions variant, it means that admissions staffers don’t get fired for admitting the STEM students who are national award winners of some variety. Who could fault them for that? In fact, it’s probably the right decision at least 95 times out of 100. But it reduces the room available for others.