<p>Sounds similar to how the Imperial Chinese Civil Service exams were administered from the Tang Dynasty on and off till the early 20th century. Each candidate would tear off a sheet with an ID number on the exam/tear off sheet to later confirm identity right before the exam started. </p>
<p>Another indication of the length they went to in order to reduce possibilities of favoritism by exam graders: 1.) Like exam takers, the exam graders were also isolated from the rest of the world for the duration of the exam and in the latters’ case…until the grading procedures were all finished. 2.) To prevent the possibility of undue influence on grading due to recognition of an exam candidate’s handwriting, exam papers were first transcribed by scribes in a separate isolated office before those transcribed copies were submitted to the graders for grading.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl-
Having been an expat I can attest to what cobrat says. Even when an expat makes a concerted effort to become integrated into a new culture things get lost in translation. Subtle differences in tone or attitude are easy to miss. Certain cultural differences are easy to learn and adapt to (invite a Mexican, Swede and American to your house for dinner and the Swede will be exactly on time, the American will be 10 minutes late and the Mexican will be there an hour later, and all will have followed the customs of their culture) but others are harder to ferret out. Did that “I’ll consider it” mean “Probably yes”, “Go away, I’m too busy to talk” or “Not a chance in h*** but I’m too polite to say no directly”? Does that nod indicate agreement or simply that the person is listening?</p>
<p>Furthermore, there are doors that are not open to everyone in a culture, much less foreigners. Knowing the basics of how to live daily life in another culture does not guarantee that one will be admitted to such rarified circles. I’d argue that college admissions is confusing enough to Americans who have lived here their entire lives and attended American colleges that to expect a foreigner to understand the ins and outs of Ivy League admissions is a bit much.</p>
<p>So, the kids still ended up at great schools and these people are suing because their BRIBES didn’t go to the right place? ROTFLMAO. Great use of our court system.</p>
<p>If the donations had been made but didn’t influence admissions the Chows wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. However, as I understand it the core issue is that Zimny never made the donations at all and has refused to return either his 2 million dollar “retainer” or the large donations for which he charged the Chows but that never showed up. The Chows contacted Loomis directly and learned that no donation in their names was ever made. Pure fraud.</p>
<p>You know, if one of my kids had wanted to apply to Oxford, I might have wanted to hire somebody to help us figure out how to do it right. Certainly, the high school would not have had a clue about it. I don’t think it’s hiring the consultant that makes this bad; it’s what the consultant actually did.</p>
<p>I would like to see the list of clients for this consultant, and see if he did the same to any US families. People are easily fooled. And scam artists are talented. With no conscious. </p>
<p>I can see US families doing the same thing. Not everyone uses the resources available to them (like CC). And most are not as educated about the college application process as parents on CC. We are a minority. In fact, just last week I was talking to the parent of a sophomore, who said that they were pushing their child to take all non-AP courses and get straight A’s because he would be able to get into any school he wanted with all straight A’s. And yes, he meant ivy’s when he said any school. My tongue was bloody following that conversation.</p>
I don’t know and I think it might depend on how your school transcript works but from anecdotal evidence I have from our high school. If you are going to get a lot of B’s in AP or hardest classes and straight A’s in lower level classes, it seems the people that have straight A’s can get into much better school than people with lower GPA loaded with AP classes. It happens a lot at our school who does not rank and does not do weighted gpa.</p>
<p>I’m not talking about expecting them to understand the ins and outs off the bat. I’m talking about - why is there no network that shares with them “myths and realities about America”? They used to say that immigrants to Ellis Island truly believed the streets were paved with gold. Well, obviously enough people came over that word got around - America is the land of opportunity, but really, the streets aren’t literally paved in gold. Why is it that there’s never a backchannel that transmits the message back? Don’t most cultures wind up trying to HELP their fellow members navigate a new culture, and part of that is dispelling myths they may have had? You never hear of someone on CC saying, “You know, I made it a point to tell the folks in the old country that …” Why is that? Is it a cultural thing about not correcting others?</p>
<p>ttparent: I agree that they may be getting into “better” schools, but are they actually getting into the elite (Ivies, etc) schools? At S’s school, the only ones who can do that (get into elite schools without a strong AP record) are the recruited athletes. Also, as posted on another thread yesterday, essentially every tippy-top school we visited this past summer indicated that they expected to see AP courses on the transcript IF they are available at the school. Further (at least at Dartmouth) it was specifically stated by the adrep that neither routine achievement of an A in a regular class, nor a B in an AP class is going to get you in…they want to see As in the most rigorous classses offered (aka AP classes for many high schools.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl-
Again, we’re talking about pretty esoteric knowledge. The fact that the Chows may have had a second cousin who came to America two or three generations ago, is not reason to think they, or their relatives/relatives’ network will know the customs for making college donations. I see the same misconceptions here all the time. Just yesterday I responded to a “How much do I need to give to get into X College?” thread, as well as a “If I get a well-connected guy who barely knows me to write a letter will I get in?” thread.</p>
<p>Perhaps their greatest mistake was simply not understanding that $2.2 million is no longer enough. (It might have been a generation or two ago - now, it’s probably a building.) It’s not a bribe: it’s payment for consideration.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Chows’ biggest mistake was handing over $2million without getting the terms of the transfer in writing. It is hard to believe anyone would do that.</p>
<p>GIVE ME A BREAK… these are people from Hong Kong, not mainland Chinese. HK’ers speak English and have a tradition of sending their kids abroad to school, especially wealthy HK’ers.</p>
<p>I don’t believe for a second that these parents didn’t know how ths U.S. education system works. They thought they could just pay for a shortcut and they got burned.</p>
<p>^^ This. Even if this is chump change to them, it should always merit some independent investigation when a member of your staff asks for $2 million.</p>
<p>The whole thing is a good reminder why I didn’t name my business “IvyAdmit.”</p>
<p>Actually, this is not always true. There are also a parallel Chinese(Cantonese) school system right alongside the English speaking one from K-university. Hence, schools like the Chinese University of Hong Kong. </p>
<p>There’s a similar phenomenon in Malaysia and Singapore as well so just because one’s from a former English colony does not necessarily mean the student is fluent in English. They could have gone to a Chinese speaking system of schools for various reasons. </p>
<p>While all those systems do offer English classes…they often end up being about as well as English classes taught in the ROC or Japan in the 1950’s-60’s…not very…especially on the speaking front. </p>
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<p>IMHO, this particular case is possibly both/and…not either/or. </p>
<p>You’d be surprised at how little Hong Kongers know about the US higher ed system. This even shows up in Hong Kong pop culture as I’ve seen several Hong Kong films where the father/parents are fearful their kids will end up at a “lousy school in the US” because “there are a ton of lousy schools there”.</p>
Yes, but tutoring and college advising is not the same as having a well paid consulting staff writing your papers and doing your homework assignments.</p>
<p>“I don’t believe for a second that these parents didn’t know how ths U.S. education system works. They thought they could just pay for a shortcut and they got burned.”</p>
<p>I’m sure they didn’t know that the going market rate for Harvard admission is now well more than $2.2 million. They just hadn’t done sufficient market research. They likely could if they were wealthy enough have paid for a shortcut and not gotten burned at all.</p>
<p>I think it would be fair if Harvard would hold a certain number of places to sell on the open market. They essentially sell them now, but are pretty tight-lipped about it, both as to price and other considerations.</p>