College Admissions Cheating Racket

[Dill]

(03-13-2019, 01:19 AM)Benton Wrote: Let me say I'm shocked... shocked... that a handful of wealthy people are paying other wealthy people to get their kids special treatment.

That aside, I really can't figure out: why?

Kushner didn't have to go to some smarty pants school. His dad made his money the old fashioned way: he inherited a company (real estate) and then lied and cheated his way to making millions. The younger Kushner could have just done the same. Why the need to bribe the prep school kid into an Ivy League school? Just putting on airs?

As I understand it, part of the drive is related to status, both for the nouveau riche and the old money.  You are extremely wealthy, and of course so are your friends. They and their children went to Harvard, Chicago and Stanford.  Yours was accepted to Mississippi Valley State.  Why, with your hundreds of millions, would you let that stand?

Same pressure from the kids' side. The children of your parents' friends are talking about the connections they are making at Yale and Georgetown over dinner, while you hold back your stories about the party animals at U Cal Chico.  You are the only guy at the Yacht party going to a state school that isn't Michigan or Berkeley. Crazy Rich Americans.

So "airs" are pretty important. You show up at an event where all the men your age wear 100,000 dollar watches. Where did you go to school again?

But beyond the airs, you do have a chance to connect with the smartest people in the world--the people who are going to run it in the coming decades. That's more than airs. That's business and power. That's Kushner with the Middle East portfolio.