[Mick]

Oh.  Let the bidding begin.

People have been able to buy their kids' way into fancy private schools for as long as private schools have been around.  That includes Stanford.  It's just a matter of price.  The Varsity Blues scandal revealed that the price at U$C is lower than previously understood for people who were willing to be shady about it.  I'm guessing U$C will establish stronger internal rules and procedures to make sure that the school capitalizes on the full value of admissions-for-sale going forward, and that people won't be able to buy their way into the school with smaller donations to parochial department funds as much anymore.

First time I read that, I thought "how cynical." Second time, I thought "how true."

My sons and I went through the admissions wars in 2009 and 2013. When other parents asked me if there were any sure-fire ways to get their child admitted to a very selective college, I told them that I only knew of two. If their child started and ran a substantial business that generated strong revenue, that was one. I only knew three students who went that route, but all of them were admitted to prestigious universities. The other, not-quite-Rick-Singer method was to find someone on campus who absolutely needed you to the point that they would make a formal request to admissions to get you in the door. Worked about a dozen times, didn't work once, of the situations with which I'm familiar.

[Mick]

Oh.  Let the bidding begin.

People have been able to buy their kids' way into fancy private schools for as long as private schools have been around.  That includes Stanford.  It's just a matter of price.  The Varsity Blues scandal revealed that the price at U$C is lower than previously understood for people who were willing to be shady about it.  I'm guessing U$C will establish stronger internal rules and procedures to make sure that the school capitalizes on the full value of admissions-for-sale going forward, and that people won't be able to buy their way into the school with smaller donations to parochial department funds as much anymore.

First time I read that, I thought "how cynical." Second time, I thought "how true."

My sons and I went through the admissions wars in 2009 and 2013. When other parents asked me if there were any sure-fire ways to get their child admitted to a very selective college, I told them that I only knew of two. If their child started and ran a substantial business that generated strong revenue, that was one. I only knew three students who went that route, but all of them were admitted to prestigious universities. The other, not-quite-Rick-Singer method was to find someone on campus who absolutely needed you to the point that they would make a formal request to admissions to get you in the door. Worked about a dozen times, didn't work once, of the situations with which I'm familiar.