<p>I am in the fortunate position to be able to donate a large sum to an ivy U on the condition that my son gets admitted. He is a good student, gets As in honors classes has decent (not steller) SATs and is on varsity Lacrosse (not a standout).</p>
<p>Does anybody have experience with this? What is the protocol? How much do you think it would take? I would like to start with 500K and I do have a cap. The key is I must put a condition of acceptance on the gift. </p>
<p>I know of someone who offered Notre Dame a new ice rink for his daughter's admission. I am happy to say that Notre Dame said no.</p>
<p>In all honesty, if a student is not qualified on his own to gain admission to a college, what will his experience there be like? You won't be there to bail out every chemistry class, every classics exam.</p>
<p>Also, what will that do for his self esteem? "I couldn't get in myself, so daddy bought my way in."</p>
<p>While I'd guess the OP is a troll ... this is simple enough ... call the development office at Princeton and arrange a meeting ... I'm sure they will be quite willing to describe their major needs (dorms, academic buildings, etc) and from there let the discussion move forward. (without any inside knowledge at all what I have always read is that developmental admits take serious money ... well into seven figures ... think having a building named after you).</p>
<p>Good news for you is, I am familiar with this protocol (aunt once worked in a prestiguous admissions $ financial aid office). You first need to contact the dean of alumni affairs (or chairperson etc. NO MATTER if you are alumni or not!)) and let them know that your son has applied and that you will give them the donation. Make arrangements to send the money, but don't say that they MUST accept your son because that will anger them. Just causually mention that he is applying and give his name. Make arrangements to send the money, following their directions obviously. Then call the admissions office and give them your son's name, high school, and any information about him (address, etc.) so that they can match up his application. Tell them about the donation and its intended use for a hockey rink (good idea!), and let them know that you have arranged to send the money. This is kind of a "backdoor" signal to admissions that there is a hook (large donation) coming their way, so they will know to accept your son. Congrats to you and your boy!</p>
<p>Tothemax33, with all due respect (assuming that you are for real) I'm afraid you are a bit misguided here. No school in the Ivy League would be likely to have a serious discussion with you on this basis and even attempting such an inquiry would certainly not be the best thing to do for your son.</p>
<p>I can't really believe that this is a real post. If it is, in all honesty, you should really be ashamed of yourself! What kind of a parent would teach his/her child that money can buy anything that the little darling wants?? Even if that does happen, it's appalling. Let your son get into whatever school he gets into, and then use your resources to support that school's programs. That would be the best use of your money, and what a wonderful legacy you would be leaving to your child's college or university. But to buy his way in? Don't you think he would always wonder if he could have been accepted on his own merits? Is Mommy/Daddy always going to bail him out with the misplaced notion that money can buy anything? How pathetic. I am being judgmental, and I really don't want to apologize for it. I don't think congratulations are in order. I feel sorry for your son.</p>
<p>Let me make sure I understand you, and please correct me if I am misinterpreting something.</p>
<p>You have upwards of $500K to make a presumably tax-deductible "donation" that "buys" quid pro quo your son, who is otherwise not quite up to par, a guaranteed admission to an ivy at the expense of someone else more worthy. Yet you are looking for FREE advice from people that would find you despicable including the very same high school kids and their parents whom your son might be so unfairly displacing. </p>
<p>Lose the idealism people. I don't know if the OP is serious or not, but this kind of thing does happen. The price runs well into seven figures. Of the people I know of who went this route, the average donation was between five and seven million.</p>
<p>It's not idealism, it's disgust. I know it happens, but why should the potential victims here want to aid the OP in perpetrating the fraud! For FREE, LOL!</p>
<p>I don't have any problem with people paying whatever they want to pay for consultants to do a personal makeover for their children, "edit" their essays, and mold their lives. This is America, it's a free and great country. In the end, it's still the candidate who has to play the sports, lead the club, take the exams, wow them on the interview, and the rest of acting the part. People want to give their children all kinds of advantages, but in the end, they still bear the risk of not achieving their objectives. </p>
<p>What the OP is talking about is a simple quid pro quo transaction that eliminates all risk with the stroke of a pen, and if the OP deducts the purchase price as a donation, it's a tax fraud because it wasn't a donation at all, it was a purchase of goods, namely the admission to the ivy, with the fair market value negotiated between a willing buyer and a willing seller. I would really enjoy being the IRS agent prosecuting that one, LOL! Could be a major motion picture.</p>
<p>How does it work, the donation goes into an escrow account? The admittance comes, and the college gets the money? What if they let the kid in and the guy doesn't actually pay, do the rescind the admissions, do they hire Tony Soprano's friends to go after him anyway? Who is really party to the crime! Does the kid even know? What if the kid is expelled for some reason, or flunks out? Does he get his money back. What if the kid actually has some self-respect, finds out and then is mortified and refuses to attend and be a party to the fraud. Does the OP get his money back? I'd love that scenario too! Maybe it's another major motion picture :-)</p>
<p>It's not as if the benefactor negotiates an exact price with the development office. The development office has a short list of applicants it would like to be admitted during each application cycle. When a sizable enough donation is made, the benefactor's child moves onto this list, which is then forwarded to the admissions office for consideration.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that if people in the admissions office and the development office could be forced to testify truthfully under oath in an IRS investigation that this kid wouldn't have been admitted without the "donation" then it's clearly quid pro quo, i.e, a transaction not a donation. In that case, I think the seven figure tax deduction would be fraudulent and the university, which would have had to provide a letter indicating that nothing of value was received for the donation, would be a party to the fraud. On the other hand, if the university treats it like a transaction and does not send the letter, then I wonder if their own tax exempt status starts coming into question for selling an admission. </p>
<p>Universities are starting to get heavily scrutinized about their tax-exempt status for not spending their endowments, and that's where all this new financial aid for the middle class business is coming from. This could get interesting, and I'd love to see something juicy like this made public in court.</p>
<p>This guy should get together with the kid who wanted to falsify his application so that the admissions people wouldn't know his alumni interviewer was his own father.</p>
<p>^^
No. The guy who was falsifying his application would get rejected by Princeton stat. If this guy has 100 mill, the admissions office will beg his son to come.</p>
<p>First of all I'd like to thank everyone who responded with sincere advice. It's given me a few very good approaches. I like the idea of spreading the gift out over 3 or 4 years, that could put some positive pressure on graduation also. I would like to keep the gift no more than 500K/year, sort of like an alternate tuition!</p>
<p>For those of you that are in denial that this doesn't happen, I say get real. Do you think that celebrity or politician kids are better/smarter than your kids? I don’t want to name any names but check out this book, it is an eye opener and names names:</p>
<p>"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 </p>
<p>I say to classirockerdad, you are really over the top, how do you know what type of people I despise?</p>
<p>As far as my son finding out about it, I am completely open with him. I am self made and have worked hard the past 25 years. He is very proud and knows that business is always quid pro quo! I live a modest lifestyle, no fancy cars, houses, etc and am handson with everything including investments so I don’t trust a 3rd party with this transaction. But I am trying to get ideas from the people on this site and will pass on my experiences. So please continue to post! Note that I only read this site once or twice a week.</p>