Will donation secure you a place in graduate school?

Question

I heard from my friend that the University had rejected him, but his father donated half a million to the school, and thereafter he managed to secure a place. How true is this? Is there really such a corrupted culture?

Answer 1

Just think about the idea that money talks a lot. Money buys a lot of influence amongst those who will allow themselves to be corrupted.

Answer 2

Donating half a million bucks sure gets ya noticed where once you were just a little fly speck, you are now a fly on the wall.

Answer 3

Is it true?  I don't know about this specific case, but it happens.  what's wrong with it, though?  Sounds like his dad paid for his spot.

Is it corrupt?  I don't think so.  Just stupid.  Like the Hiltons and the Kennedys, you can buy things for your kids, but not integrity and values.  If your friend's dad had to give 0.5MM to a school to let him in, then his dad's fortune will surely be lost in the second or third generation hence.  He is buying his son a diploma and not an education.

Answer 4

This is NOT true as a matter of fact. All applications to a major university are looked at by their admissions office independently and are looked at one by one with different considerations.

s*x, Race, GPA, Test scores, and items from your transcript are the premise from which they will pick you from. They want an "approximately normal" distribution of different cultures to "diversify" who they have on campus and so they can brag about it to press.

When I applied for the University of South Florida, Gardner Web Private University, and Florida State University; EVERYONE of the applications asked for my "race" and if you look into the student catalog you can see how they diversify every culture and the percentage of who's on campus for every race.

There is NO REASON to ask for my race, but to look at my credentials and to pick me from there, but unfortunately they want to "diversify"

Answer 5

Even if the admissions are run separately I'm sure there are back door situations.  The president of the University or what not will just tell the admissions people to look for so and so and admit them.  Just like most schools consider legacy situation in admittance.  If a building at the school is named after your family I'm pretty sure you can get in.