Wealthy Jewish families are rejecting the Ivy League for ‘Plan B’ schools

NY Post ^ | November 27, 2023 | Rikki Schlott

[Twotone]

If you want to improve your kid’s chances of getting into an elite university — and you can afford it — it certainly doesn’t hurt to start donating major cash to the school as early as possible.

But some wealthy Jewish families who have done just that at schools like Harvard and Columbia, sometimes beginning when their children were in first grade, are now writing it off as a loss.

Following an explosion of pro-Palestine rallies and anti-Israel sentiment in the Ivy League, some families of high-school seniors are crossing the schools off their application lists.

“They’re not paying a single dollar more to the schools,” college admissions consultant Christopher Rim told The Post. “They don’t want to be associated with these schools. They are totally out.”

Rim, who is the founder of Command Education, said people are changing their minds last minute in this application cycle.

“It’s top of mind for the current seniors,” Rim said. “They’re asking to edit and refine their college lists now.”

[cgbg]

“Jewish, Indian, and Chinese students and parents also don’t give a crap about sports.”

Good point—reminds me of the great line in Godfather II where Hyman Roth explains “I loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919.”

[FLT-bird]

For athletic scholarships such as those for bigtime college football and basketball, the schools makes far more profit from the student than the cost of the scholarship.

For a lot of elite schools (think Stanford and the like) sports - especially sports that nobody watches or cares about are a way to admit the children of alums or the well connected who otherwise stand no chance of getting in on the merits.

[magooey]

There are high quality international level Universities outside the West where students can do their studies or work on their doctorates. The world is changing, and this is no longer the 1930's where it is the West and nothing else. There are the IIT's in India, the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and numerous institutions elsewhere. If Obama's and Biden's minions cannot behave themselves, it might be reasonable to look around.

[KingofZion]

I have a senior, he does not plan to apply to any Ivy schools even though he is well qualified. Will save me a lot of coin.