“Zhao said his son was a successful fencer, excelled at the prestigious St. Albans School with excellent grades (all A’s in high school except for one B freshman year, transcripts show), notched a nearly perfect SAT score, and had Harvard family connections — his older brother was then a student and a fencer, and his mother has multiple Harvard graduate degrees.”
All sounds great...UNTIL...you remember that this is an ASIAN family and therefore gets stepped on even more than whites. No wonder dad had to ‘take the extra step’ to get the kid admitted.
My reading of the intent is it seems more like the Dad loves to be the big shot that funds the team, gives money to the coaches, gives them upgrades on flights and contributes to their charities, so that their son is always a key member of the team. Maybe not to get the kid in, but to make dad the big man once he did get in. I’ve seen those dads a lot in high school sports, not so much in college sports.
It’s possible he did it to ensure entry, but it looks like he had a very good shot at getting in even though he is Asian. Sports is a way to avoid the bias against Asians, as a lot of Asians have figured out, which is why they find an obscure sport they can excel at and focus on it. (aka, fencing).