The Story Behind Jared Kushner's Curious Acceptance Into Harvard
I would like to express my gratitude to Jared Kushner for reviving interest in my 2006 book, The Price of Admission. I have never met or spoken with him, and its rare in this life to find such a selfless benefactor. Of course, I doubt he became Donald Trumps son-in-law and consigliere merely to boost my lagging sales, but still, Im thankful.
My book exposed a grubby secret of American higher education: that the rich buy their under-achieving childrens way into elite universities with massive, tax-deductible donations. It reported that New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard University in 1998, not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school. At the time, Harvard accepted about one of every nine applicants. (Nowadays, it only takes one out of twenty.)
I also quoted administrators at Jareds high school, who described him as a less than stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvards decision.
There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard, a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard
Bleacher Creature
(11,256 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)and got all sorts of tutoring, test prep, admissions essay editing paid for-
that is, had all the advantages-- still couldn't qualify to get into a university. At what point do rich people think, hmm, maybe we should settle for getting only what we are qualified for, not what we can bribe for?
The entitlement just reeks. "I deserve this because I can bribe for it!"
Larrybanal
(227 posts)but these families can afford it and it is something they use forever..."I am a harvard grad" or in the case of 45 he keeps mentioning the wharton school even though he transferred in under questionable circumstances but he still uses his attendance as a marker of his "very stable genius" bullshit
deurbano
(2,894 posts)patricia92243
(12,595 posts)KSNY
(315 posts)I remember reading (before Nov. 2016...maybe in Mother Jones, not sure) that Fred Trump made a big donation to U of Pennsylvania so that the orange a-hole could transfer to their undergrad program ar the Wharton school (not enough people know that Trump did not do an MBA, just an undergraduate degree at Wharton ).
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)wondered or have been first hand to these things occurring in their College Experience. Myself I did,if Mommy or Daddy was a State Politician,well,chances are their Children were first in line for any Appointments to a Military Academy . Or,they were slotted into the State University System with the help of ghost Exam Takers .
Again,you want to know how things work,talk to the maintenance staff. We were the ones whom did the scheduling .
Javaman
(62,517 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,584 posts)50 others already have been.
George II
(67,782 posts).....surprised the DA didn't say, "But wait! There's more!"
DoctorJoJo
(1,134 posts)NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 12, 2019, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)
My piers and I were all pretty much middle class at most - but the wealth of the students in our labs and classes were...well, multiples of our own. That's OK - it happens - but the infuriating thing is when we tried to give honest grades to rich, careless students, but were told we couldn't because the families of the kids who nearly burned down the labs were huge alumni donors.
I learned early on about this sort of bullshit. Made us all sick.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)Jarqui
(10,123 posts)from a poster on the internet,
My immediate family has ties to Harvard going back to the 1940s. My father was involved with the admittance committee for many years. The gist of the story is true. It's been that way for decades at the very least - maybe since it's inception. Many institutions are similar. I saw some deserving students passed over for ones with money or connections. It was a real sore point between me and my father.
getagrip_already
(14,708 posts)They tell us the problem is those darned minority quotas taking seats from more qualified white students......
They tell us a lot of bs.
ck4829
(35,045 posts)NCjack
(10,279 posts)1. Cancel his degree and rights as a graduate, or
2. Demand a gift to compensate for the institution's embarrassment, e.g., $25 M to start a department on real estate buggery.
erronis
(15,241 posts)They (and all the other big-name schools that scrounge for mega-bucks) will weather this little storm. They can also hire the best PR and legal firms to beat back the barbarians.
Fritz Walter
(4,291 posts)They'll create a whole new department, which will combine:
* Health Sciences -- once JarJar finds the cure for the Opioid Epidemic;
* International Relations -- peace in the Middle East is almost within his grasp; and
* Security -- what do those experienced WH officials know about top secret clearances, any way?
This could be YUGE!
MarcA
(2,195 posts)amywalk
(254 posts)that featured Ivanka Trump, Michael Bloombergs daughter, a Vanderbilt, a couple of European barons plus a slew of other rich kids, to watch it. It was produced by one of the Johnson &Johnson heirs. They were mostly just out of college and partying in Manhattan or summering in the Hamptons. It was a fascinating look into the lives of these super rich and super entitled children who all went to Ivy League schools. One group interviewed at a Manhattan party, talked about how college worked for these Ivy League legacies. They went where their parents went and their parents made substantial donations to the schools prior to admittance. I recall one of the kids discussed practically never going to class in all 4 years. Todays bust of celebrity parents and some of the schools practice of committing fraud by placing them on sports teams they didnt play for as an excuse for admitting them seems similar. Do you remember articles about Trump not being in school very often and spent all his weekends in New York. The scam was their professors werent allowed to fail them. They were not allowed to make below a C. I had no clue this stuff went on. But, it certainly makes you remember GW Bush talking about being a C student at Yale and skipping classes all the time. Anyway, seeing the news today brought that back and if you ever see it on, have a look. IIRC, Ivanka came across as one of the least offensive ones and I think its before all her surgeries.
SwissTony
(2,560 posts)It's got the title "Born Rich" but has the J&J connection.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)Took almost two years away, and then got back in. It pays to have money and connections, I guess.