It’s from the deposition, NYT article:
"After an exchange running three fully blacked-out pages, Mr. Fitzsimmons explained that candidates on the dean’s list could receive a separate rating, in consultation with people connected to the alumni association and the development office, the chief fund-raising arm.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer asked, “And are you rating the applicant, or are you rating the level of interest that other people at the university have in this applicant’s admission prospect?”
Over an objection, Mr. Fitzsimmons replied, “The latter.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyer asked whether the bigger the financial contribution from a donor, the more it would affect the development office’s rating of someone on the dean’s list related to that donor. “It would tend to go that way,” Mr. Fitzsimmons replied."
They don’t really rate the applicant, they look at how other groups at Harvard would be impacted if the applicant was accepted or not. And the bigger the contribution the higher the applicant rating, again not surprising at all.
Here’s the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/29/us/harvard-admissions-asian-americans.html