Forget social media.
Money is the biggest influencer.
Money and privilege distort the level playing field in life and often override hard work.
Case in point, the halls of education are papered with checks from the rich.
Of course, everyone who has knowledge of college admissions knows that it is a very competitive, nerve-racking, anxiety induced situation.
It’s common knowledge that many rich kids and legacies have a leg up and consequently, a much easier path to higher education.
I know many people whose parents coincidentally donated funds to their alma mater for a new campus building in their child’s junior year of high school.
One of my favorite stories came from the mouth of a frantic, Ivy League obsessed mother at the rigorous private school that my daughter attended.
She stood up in a college application overview assembly and screamed, “I don’t want to hear about ‘Small Ivy.’ I did not spend all this money to have my daughter go anywhere, but an elite Ivy college!”
Check, please.
The #1 son-in-law in America, aka Jared Kushner, allegedly was admitted to Harvard after his father coincidentally made a $2.5 million tax-deductible donation to the school when Jared was in high school.
In the book, The Price of Admission, by Daniel Golden which was published in 2006, he wrote about how the rich buy their children, especially under-achievers, access to elite schools.
The book reported that real estate developer Charles Kushner (Jared’s father) had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard University in 1998, not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school.
The author also quoted administrators at Jared’s private high school, who described him as a less than stellar student with a GPA and SAT scores that did not warrant admission, expressing dismay at Harvard’s decision.
This form of coercion has been around for decades.
Sound familiar as in what was revealed this week regarding actress Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman among many other rich people.
The massive college admissions cheating scandal, led by William Singer, provided illegal benefits for 761 families.
Elite athletes who, in many cases, can barely read and write, are admitted due to their physical prowess because successful college sports teams bring in droves of revenue to universities.
Donating money, academically unqualified athletes, cheaters, under qualified legacies are all the same.
As with everything in life, money talks.
