<p>I’m thinking there’s a possibility their sons know, but the parents have some sort of a disconnect and refuse to believe their kids, the boarding school’s college counseling office, fall back to their unsophisticated notions about US college admissions, and believe that money can buy everyone/everything.</p>
<p>It’s one reason why many more assimilated Chinese-Americans like myself tend to be wary of providing advice on such matters when asked by recent Chinese immigrants.</p>
<p>Money can buy pretty much everything…the only question is the price. (But not everyone can use money to buy everything - that’s why there is this wholly opaque world of “developmental admit”.)</p>
<p>We should remember that the Chows hired Zimny to work on all fronts to get their kids into Harvard. He was supposed to be providing advice, supervision, test prep, subject tutoring, and all the while creating the impression among elite college directors of admissions that the Chow kids were development admits. I think they were myopic and misguided but they weren’t doing anything illegal. What they did was no worse than the US family that sends a big check to their alma mater the year before their child applies. It doesn’t guarantee admission but it may get the application a second look .</p>
<p>What’s great about internet is that their boys will be forever linked to this story - your parents couldn’t even get you into Harvard with 2.2 mil.</p>
<p>^Like Blair Hornstine, except in this case it wasn’t even the kids’ fault. The lawsuit was filed in 2010. I wonder if the sons had any warning that this story was coming out.</p>
<p>“The scholarly/literati side of my family are probably ROTFLOLing in glee while the business/engineering executive side of my family are cringing and dreading being associated with the Chows…especially considering some of them have business connections with Hong Kong business oriented families.”</p>
<p>Cobrat, have you ever noticed that you’re the only one posting about what your family thinks? That the rest of us just post what WE think, and don’t expect anyone to care what our families think? It is odd for a man your age to be so invested in reporting out what his family thinks, as if it would be meaningful to anyone else.</p>
<p>I agree with Mini, $2.2M isn’t enough, for Harvard. Back in my days, Harvard rejected $5M from a family friend. They found another elite school that took it.</p>
<p>^^ Well maybe it reflects a cultural thing. Maybe Chinese people really do spend an inordinate amount of time–to us–worrying about what others think on every detail of their lives.</p>
<p>Considering the possibly milieu of their boarding school, parental desires to throw money for max prestige, and the company their families keep in their narrow area of Hong Kong society, Georgetown and NYU is a major letdown.</p>
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<p>You know, if I had thought about it more…I may have actually pulled off a Harvard College app by not only filling it out, but sending them a box filled with 2.2 million Confederate dollars or the same amount in mid-1940’s Hungarian Pengo. :D</p>
<p>Hey…the look on their faces, reactions, and possible reply would be priceless. :D</p>
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<p>That’s par for the course for living in any society/family which places a greater priority on group/society concerns over the individual. </p>
<p>Considering some of those making cracks about this have traveled and visited such societies…especially Japan…I’d think the above would be obvious.</p>
<p>Of course, I have noticed that some have mistaken my anthropological observations/comparisons of my family’s/friends’ experiences for being concerned about what others think as well…much to my bewilderment and amusement.</p>
<p>^Yup. When nothing but the Ivies will do schools that most kids would die to attend are a disappointment. I’m curious as to Zimny’s background. Did he have any experience in college admissions whatsoever? Attending or teaching at an institution will give you squat in the way of insight as to the inner workings of the admissions committee.</p>
<p>One clue as to why Zimny’s time at Harvard may have been brief- Mark J. Zimney was arrested by Harvard U. police in June of 2005 on a charge of kidnapping/ domestic abuse.</p>
<p>Zimny went to Yale, but I am not sure what degree(s), if any, he earned there.</p>
<p>One of the more humorous (crazy?) parts of his treatise, provided in the court documentation, is his assertion that incompetent boarding school faculty (who largely washed out of top schools because they couldn’t manage to complete their dissertations/graduate programs) treat foreign students poorly out of jealousy…Riiiiight.</p>
<p>Too bad the Chow’s weren’t Chinese Communist Party princelings. They would have gotten their kids into Harvard, Yale, Columbia like other princeling kids, and it wouldn’t have cost them 2 mill</p>
<p>The thread is getting interesting. Perhaps an opinion based on even more people, say a poll of X number to support one’s own, would be better, if you are with the majority.</p>
<p>I am, as usual, late to the thread, and I have nothing of value to add to the topic. </p>
<p>However, having read straight through the thread I am struck by the nasty tone some posters routinely take towards other posters. It comes close to crossing into bullying. (Actually, if we were kids, our parents and teachers would consider it to be bullying) We all have perspectives that may or may not be valuable to a random reader. None of us has a lock on perfect posts, or perfect tone, or perfect discussion techniques.</p>
<p>As surely as winter follows fall, I know that Z will criticize Y’s posts. It is mean spirited, and reflects badly on the person who feels the need to routinely criticize specific posters.</p>
<p>"That’s par for the course for living in any society/family which places a greater priority on group/society concerns over the individual. </p>
<p>Considering some of those making cracks about this have traveled and visited such societies…especially Japan…I’d think the above would be obvious."</p>
<p>Right, but you were born /raised / schooled in America, you’re in your 30s, and you still speak of the “opinions” of those in your hs and college as though a) you’ve taken a poll, b) they are all of one mind in “regarding” this college this way and that college that way, and c) anyone should care or find their opinions meaningful.</p>