<p>i agree sue. for universities, the usual mantra is to keep consistent if small donations. for boarding schools, its a different game. any parents weekend is a free for all with the development office folks out in full force. i think this is in part due to the increasing strength of public schools and declining boarding school populations. also, retention rates to top Universities are no longer what they once were from top boarding schools.</p>
<p>The Gerald Chow invoices are sickening. Has Harvard reacted to this yet? It seems obvious that his degree should be revoked. </p>
<p>I can’t understand why Chow’s lawyer would EVER introduce these invoices into the record, even if they could be filed under seal. But to introduce them into the public record is completely unfathomable! The damage to Chow’s reputation from the public release of these records has got to be greater than the $2 million Chow is seeking to recover in the case – especially given that Chow himself was willing to SPEND at least hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not the full two million) to boost his and his family’s reputation through Ivy League degrees. </p>
<p>Not only that, but there are several places in the invoices where Chow’s lawyer failed to redact the names of the two sons whose identity had apparently heretofore been so carefully guarded in other court papers! That is an extremely serious mistake on the law firm’s part. </p>
<p>Has anyone EVER heard of cheating to this degree? For those who haven’t looked at the link, the “tutors” apparently attended all of Chow’s classes at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, provided summaries of all of the required reading, wrote all of the papers – spending hundreds of hours doing the work for Chow’s master’s degree. I’m truly speechless. And I don’t consider myself naive; unlike many others, I wasn’t shocked by the allegations on the other Harvard cheating scandal. But this is another level altogether! How widespread do people think this kind of behavior is?</p>
<p>When I was a senior in college, I was contacted by an MIT student from Saudi Arabia or Iran, can’t recall which, who was looking for someone to write up his graduate thesis for him. But IIRC, he was planning to supply the data and so forth: he just wanted someone to put it into superior prose. Also IIRC, the deal was something like he would provide an apartment to live in that his family owned plus some kind of stipend. That was in 1975. It was obvious that his family was wealthy.</p>
<p>But even that was minor compared to Chow’s situation.</p>
<p>nottelling I was beyond speechless when I read the PDF’s attached to the Boston Globe article. Wondering if I am a bit naive about what really goes on in the Ivy admit world when dealing with wealthy hopefuls. This is truly beyond the pale.</p>
<p>I think $2mil was probably chump change to Chows, so I wonder in trying to get the “chump change” back if the Chows considered what kind of effect it was going to have on their kids. I don’t think I would drag my kid’s name through mud for anything in the world.</p>
<p>Well since the thread has morphed onto donations…my 40th college reunion will be this coming spring (no I’m not going). I have made a restricted donation to my department every year since I graduated. I even am a member of some some special society of donors.</p>
<p>Wonder if this would help my DD get accepted to the DO school?</p>
<p>Rodney Dangerfield did it first in Back to School. :)</p>
<p>You mean I’m in the same class as Rodney Dangerfied? That is amazingly awesome (see other thread).</p>
<p>Sorry … I was reviewing all the posts about paying a whole staff of people to take notes, tests, write papers, etc & all I could think about was Rodney doing that in Back to School. It’s funny when it’s in a movie, but not so much in real life.</p>
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<p>Not to mention that the reputation hit they’ll take back in HK/China is going to be far worse considering how even suspicions of cheating in university admissions/courses tends to generate outrage…especially if the malefactor is a wealthy businessman. </p>
<p>Plays into the centuries-old disdainful scholar-gentry stereotype of a crass rich merchant/business family trying to buy their way into the respectable educated elite. </p>
<p>Hong Kong/China locals are probably already making jokes about them referencing that stereotype or associating them with corrupt Chinese Communist party officials and their HK political groupies.</p>
<p>To be fair, the British Army once had a policy of recruiting infantry/cavalry officers solely on the basis of whether they can pay a hefty fee for a commissioned officer’s rank/position up until 1870. One justification for this policy was to keep anyone who wasn’t independently wealthy…especially through land generated income from the officer corps. </p>
<p>Moreover, the US Civil Service at all levels was completely influenced by political patronage and corruption. Boss Tweed and pre-presidential Chester A. Arthur were two men who were notorious for being involved. Ironically, it was Chester A. Arthur as President who was a key figure in implementing Civil Service reforms by making selection of civil service personnel by standardized exam in lieu of rampant political patronage…a concept that at its root originated with the Chinese…</p>
<p>Congrats, Cobrat, you did find your funny bone. That last post was worthy of Comedy Central. This is cheating in the USA. Different rules, right?</p>
<p>Yeah, yeah, I know Sea Breeze will chime in. So, here is a source.</p>
<p>A research report in 2010 by ***** China, an online social networking and research business that matches Chinese students with colleges and scholarships, reveals pervasive cheating on US college apps in China, driven in part by hyper-competitive parents and aggressive agents. 90% of recommendation letters are fake; 70% of essays are not written by the applicant; and 50% of high school transcripts are falsified. Chinese applicants typically cheat in five major categories: recommendation letters, essays, high school transcripts, financial aid applications, and awards.</p>
<p>you’re right cobrat, it’s already began in HKG with the poking at them:
[Tycoons'</a>; court cases are a bit rich | South China Morning Post](<a href=“http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1059833/tycoons-court-cases-are-bit-rich]Tycoons’”>Tycoons' court cases are a bit rich | South China Morning Post)</p>
<p>and they dont even have this info yet i think</p>
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<p>One thing you have to understand is one reason well-off Chinese send their kids abroad for undergrad studies is because they not only have the money, but also because they don’t want to subject their kids to the exceedingly competitive multi-day national college entrance exam* or their kids didn’t score high enough to gain entry into a first or second-tier Mainland Chinese college. </p>
<p>The score isn’t influenced by how much money or political influence one has and even most the political elite feel they have a stake in maintaining that…especially considering they recalled what happened when they did allow political factors to play the main role in university admissions during the Cultural Revolution…universities overrun with undereducated and sometimes even illiterate political hacks. </p>
<p>If they scored high enough to make it into Beijing U, Tsinghua, Renmin, Nankai, Fudan, or other first-tier domestic institutions, the vast majority of them would opt to remain there to complete their undergrad due to domestic prestige cred such institutions command compared to all except the very elite foreign universities like Oxbridge or HYPSMC. </p>
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<li>This exam makes Chinese/East Asian college admissions far worse than US elite college admissions…especially considering as illustrated in the 2007 Mainland Chinese case, more than half of all exam candidates failed to score high enough to secure at place at ANY college.</li>
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<p>So he was an adviser to a Hong Kong government think tank?!! Figures…no wonder Hong Kong has been having so many economic and political problems since the handover. :(</p>
<p>Not sure why you think I don’t understand those dynamics and don’t know all I need to know about the gaokao.</p>
<p>All this explaining does not excuse the rampant and … endemic cheating on US applications and standardized tests in Asia. And the booming business for consultants who fabricate credentials and write applications.</p>
<p>At all cost is the mantra.</p>
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<p>I’m more providing an explanation for its occurrence. From what I’ve heard, it’s more due to a mix of the corrupt party officials/rich businesspeople’s mentality that they want prestige they perceive is relatively easier to purchase and the fact their kids, on average, aren’t the academically strongest students within China’s college bound population. </p>
<p>In short, they’d probably be more equivalent to your stereotypical US legacy/developmental admit whose academic record/standardized scores are on the extreme low-end of a given elite college’s admit pool and the wealth/connections to go with it.</p>
<p>Especially considering this was a common perception among most of the Chinese grad students I encountered who did their undergrad at the top domestic colleges before coming to the US for grad school and a few visiting Mainland Chinese Profs who did their graduate work in the states.</p>
<p>"to mention that the reputation hit they’ll take back in HK/China is going to be far worse considering how even suspicions of cheating in university admissions/courses tends to generate outrage…especially if the malefactor is a wealthy businessman. "</p>
<p>Oh god, not the reputation hit!!! Nothing is more important – NOTHING – than what other people think of you! Indeed, that’s the Very Meaning and Purpose of Life. Amass credentials to impress other people, and then you die.</p>
<p>“In short, they’d probably be more equivalent to your stereotypical US legacy/developmental admit whose academic record/standardized scores are on the extreme low-end of a given elite college’s admit pool and the wealth/connections to go with it.”</p>
<p>Except in the US, most people don’t spend their days being “outraged” at a legacy/developmental admit being admitted. They shrug and move on with their lives. That’s normal, not all this “outrage” you constantly describe.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, where one gets their college degrees does dictate what jobs and even what social circles one gains access to for the most part to a far greater degree than here in the US in societies…like the ones the Chows live. </p>
<p>If you had more awareness and the ability to step out of your Midwest suburban upper-middle class bubble, you’d be aware that all your talk of “aspiring to eliteness is not elite” rhetoric is inapplicable in many cultures where one’s alum affiliation does determine whether someone enters their respective elites…or even has a nice upper-middle class job or not. </p>
<p>And it is applicable in this case as the story in the OP is about a family who is based in one of those societies and whose kids may not only intend to return after schooling, but also maintain social networks within such a society. </p>
<p>It’s one thing to make such criticism of immigrants to the US as our society doesn’t emphasize credentials and elite schools for career/social access/advancement to nearly the same extent. </p>
<p>However, that’s not applicable to this discussion considering the story’s situation in the OP.</p>
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<p>Say what?</p>
<p>Xiggi, do you have a job other than posting your anti-Asian bias here?
All your time and resources devoted to googling to support your arguments to put down certain people.
And you are right, I am tracking you.</p>