<p>"And this admission via donation is just another one of these advantages."</p>
<p>No, I really don't think so. </p>
<p>Having tutors and music lessons and summers in Thailand are advantages money can buy but that a student must put something into for them to produce meaningful outcomes. Having someone pay so you can get in a particular college is, to put it bluntly, being the beneficiary of bribery. I know that sounds harsh and I know that life is not fair, but I can't shrug it off as easily as other folks here. </p>
<p>I think one reason why it bothers me is that there are so many complaints about people who think that people who make 20K or 40K or so who are deemed so advantaged in financial aid or admissions, or the case is made that URM have a terribly unfair advantage or women got into MIT too easily, etc. And then we have a case where someone is a less qualified applicant but rich who gets into an elite school where he or she will reap further advantages by virtue of having gone to that institution and it's "oh well, that's just how the way the world works." I'm not naive. I know that's how the world works. But that doesn't make it right.</p>
<p>I think the students are putting in enough effort to present a profile that makes them at least marginally acceptable. The $$ tips the balance in their favor - - just as some other factor (like being from VT/ WY/ NE or playing the oboe) will tip for some other candidate who manages to get in by the skin of his/her teeth. And, as mini posted, even if these development admits end up (or stay in ) the bottom half or bottom quarter of the class, they are not alone.</p>
<p>momfromme, My thoughts, exactly, expressed very clearly.</p>
<p>We do have friends who could buy and sell everyone on this board many times over. One of the couple was part of a very small group who started a company that has grown to the multi-billion dollar level. This person is very well known and any school admissions or development officer could learn the situation in 5 minutes of googling. These people are very low key, and no one meeting them, or their children, would guess their financial status. They have a son who is my son's age, and the boys are good friends. The boy, like my son, applied to several independent HS but was not admitted anywhere. I would have expected the boy to be admitted at least somewhere; he is very bright (CTY participant), interesting, plays several sports well, is a delightful person. His grades are not quite what they should be, but he still is a very strong candidate. Clearly his parents could have played the $$ card. They didn't, and wouldn't have. If they had been the kind of people to do this, I doubt that their children would have turned out as well as they have.</p>
<p>If your rich friends brag about their kids again, congratulate them and suggest that you all go out to dinner to celebrate their good fortune (their treat, of course).</p>
<p>
[quote]
If your rich friends brag about their kids again, congratulate them and suggest that you all go out to dinner to celebrate their good fortune (their treat, of course).
[/quote]
I'd also suggest that they drive. (Their yacht, of course.) Does one "drive" a yacht? Pilot a yacht? Captain a yacht? I have no idea.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"oh well, that's just how the way the world works."
[/quote]
I really don't see too much of that sentiment here. Whether it's because of money, race, region, gender, or athleticism, nobody is going to be happy about his kid being overlooked for a duller candidate. But it is the way the world works. At least the $$ is benefitting lots of students, not just one kid, as in the case of a girl with low-end math scores being admitted to MIT, for example.</p>
<p>"Whether it's because of money, race, region, gender, or athleticism, nobody is going to be happy about his kid being overlooked for a duller candidate."</p>
<p>Someone wrote a whole book about this subject - "The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates" by Daniel Golden. It was an enlightening read, but I squirmed at the naming of students.</p>
<p>If you do decide to risk your friendship and want some fun, you might chat them up on this subject. You could admire their kids for having forgone the seven figures in hand just to attend the school their parents selected.
You could probe a bit on their rationale (and perhaps calculation) - did they think that by going to a 'rich' school their kids would pair off with someone rich, in which case the family might come out ahead even after the donations?</p>
<p>As I explained to a friend whose D wanted to attend a top "balanced" coed sch, but was rejected from most on her list - - these days that means rejecting qualif girls in favor of boys w/ lesser stats. If the colleges on her list chose only by stats, most would look like Goucher and her D wouldn't be interested. </p>
<p>Maintaining gender parity is a legit value shared by the sch and most of the students and thus does not benefit only the low scoring boys. But the
"balanced" student body (like other attractive/positive aspects of campus life) comes at a cost - - and that is life. </p>
<p>"Duller" kids, who are rarely objectively "dull" and who bring something else to the table (in friend's case gender, in OP's case $), will always get a bit of an advantage. No diff w/ development admits than any other favored group.</p>
<p>Also understandable that no one wants his/her kid to be the one left out.</p>