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A comment on UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors to donors. Parent comment

Re:UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors t... by CobrastanJorji on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @07:50PM (#24561399)
> I'm generally opposed to this kind of acceptance-of-bad-things but in this case I kinda agree. If people are willing to pay millions to go to college, that's potentially a great advantage to students who otherwise have trouble affording it.

That's true until the University is so rich that it no longer has any need to acquire any more money. Harvard has a $40 billion investment fund. No amount of rich kids are going meaningful move the needle there. At that point, why bother selling spots to rich kids at all? If you're worried about bribery, why not just literally ban students whose parents are wealthy?

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Re:UC Berkeley inappropriately admitted students as favors t... by andreilys on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @08:30PM (#24561616)
Wealth is one parameter, another is influence.

Harvard benefits from the prestige of its alum network, and admitting the children of wealthy parents ensures a certain level of influence/access to said parent.

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