Posted on 02/27/2015 9:46:04 PM PST by QT3.14
You're confusing a few different issues: gaining admittance; how one gains admittance; how one pays for school.
The reference to “buying one’s way in” to Harvard generally refers to subpar applicants, generally white, generally male, who don't quite have the credentials to get into Harvard College, but aren't too far off. Some of these applicants have families that can afford large donations, and are called “development cases.” Their applications are handled by the office of the Dean of Admissions directly. I'm given to understand that development slots at the college start at $5 million.
That's to gain entry to Harvard College, which is the school within Harvard University that provides undergraduate educatrion and grants ABs and SB (bachelor degrees).
Admission to Harvard College is extremely competitive. The admission rate this year will be around 5.4%.
For most students, paying for Harvard isn't terribly burdensome. Harvard gives generous financial aid, and students from families with median household income or lower essentially go free. If your family has income of $65K or less, you get free tuition, room, and board, and a few bucks to pay for books and the like. The student is only responsible for the work-study part of his award, which typically ranges from $3K to $4.5K per year for freshmen, and there are abundant campus jobs usually paying in excess of $10 or more per hour.
The Kenyan didn't attend Harvard College. Rather, he attended the law school.
Admission to the law school is much easier. The admission rate is about 15%. And for a minority student earning a degree from another Ivy League school (Columbia), getting in shouldn't be too difficult. Between the higher admit rate, the minority status, and the diploma from another Ivy, no special strings would need to be pulled to get into Harvard Law. Just present a transcript that's not laughable, an LSAT that's not laughable, and some decent letters of recommendation. If you're not a very good writer, yourself, have someone write a good essay for you, and you have a very high chance of getting in.
Thus, it's unlikely that the Kenyan “bought” his way into Harvard Law. No need. Even what you've written on your FR page pretty much attests to this: the young Kenyan was able to successfully graduate from Columbia, he met some folks, made a good impression on them, they wrote letters of recommendation for him.
Where there may be a grain of truth is that Harvard Law is expensive, even more than the college. But Harvard Law also has financial aid, and it's likely that through Harvard Law's financial aid program, the Kenyan was able to pay most, perhaps even all his tuition. It's quite likely that he received some significant financial aid, and made the rest up with student loans.
That doesn't mean that there may not have been one or more parties providing the financial aid for the Kenyan, including your Saudi prince. But this is pretty routine at Harvard.
My sons go to Harvard and they both receive generous financial aid. Some aid comes directly out of endowment money. But the school has many contributors, and some specify that they want their money used for financial aid. In some cases, contributors will be matched with individual students, and will pay the entire financial aid package of that student. My older son has such a sponsor. And his sponsor pays the financial aid for two students. This amount probably comes close to six figures per year. As you can imagine, folks who make these sorts of contributions are typically very well off. They often hold high positions in large, prosperous, and prestigious organizations.
My son's sponsor is a senior executive in a large Wall Street firm. From time to time, my son has been taken out to dinner or lunch by his sponsor, so that his sponsor could get to know him. This is not unlike the “Send $19 per month and you can save one child in South America from poverty, and we'll send you a picture of the child along with a handwritten thank-you note from the child!”
Only, the handwritten notes from my son cost a bit more than $19 per month.
My son communicates with his sponsor on a somewhat regular basis, and should my son decide to forgo an academic career, I imagine one of his best contacts in the business world would be his sponsor. This is a normal perk of going to an Ivy League school.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the Kenyan had a sponsor, that this sponsor was very, very rich, or even that this sponsor was a foreigner. It is common knowledge that a lot of OPEC money flows into top schools through these sorts of channels. I'd be shocked if there were no Saudi princes sponsoring folks at the Ivies.
But that doesn't mean that the Kenyan “bought” his way into Harvard. There's no evidence of that. The only evidence is that his financial aid was probably paid by a specific sponsor, and apparently, that sponsor was a Saudi prince.
sitetest
In the state school I attended they quarantined many affirmative action students in one building, where they could take all of the remedial classes that white/Asian guys needed just to be admitted. They’d waste away there a semester or two, paying for classes that had no college credits, then would just disappear.
When you had those students in regular classes, it was very sad; during the first class or two they would realize how far behind the “real” students they were, and would often drop out (or head to the African or Women Studies departments). One basic flaw of the affirmative action policies is that there are black, Hispanic, and female students that would have fit right in at that school - but they had been pushed up a level (to better schools) where they probably had the same experience. All were being bumped up one level, which ensured they would probably fail (and certainly wouldn’t be treated as equals to white/Asian men). It also leaves a burning sense of inferiority in them, that manifests itself in the workplace and voting booth; it has convinced most of them that their gender/race is the only reason they have a job - and they are usually right.
How about your surgeon? Delicate heart surgery or brain surgery?
Just what I want—an affirmative action educated surgeon!!!!!
NOT!!!
Just like anytime any liberal starts spouting off about reducing the population by forced means, they are immediately executed to live up to their own suggestion.
Paging Harrison Bergeron......
See post #72.
“These asshats meddling in every aspect of peoples’ lives and believing they have a sovereign right to do so need to be dealt with.”
It’s very difficult to deal with psychotics and sociopaths.
IMHO
I already replied to 72.
I see that now.
Good rebuttal.
“Not just anyone can get into Yale or Harvard.”
Judging by the current occupants of the white hut I cannot justify your conclusion!
Is there any other college besides Hillsdale that does not get tainted by public money?
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