What happens after rich kids bribe their way into college? I teach them

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/what-happens-after-rich-kids-bribe-their-way-into-college-i-teach-them

by pakitan • 7 years ago

13 3 7 years ago

sevensor• 7 years ago

Entitled and demanding behavior from deeply incompetent undergraduates is also increasingly common at big state universities. We might be tempted to blame a corrupt admissions process for that as well, but it's so widespread that it seems more like a cultural shift. I suppose it could be both -- admissions offices unable or unwilling to resist cultural changes, with the result that academic preparedness is no longer valued in the admissions process.

LogicX• 7 years ago

Universities are a business: They want to serve as many customers as possible. To deny someone admission due to poor academics is to deprive the university of revenue.

Similarly if a student were to be an unsatisfied customer (due to low grades), and take their business elsewhere (take a semester off, then transfer elsewhere), it would also deprive the university of revenue.

Far too many students don't come anymore for specific classes, teachers, or degrees. They want the experience, to check a box for their parents and future employers.

Having taught at a univerisity, I experienced much of this first-hand, including the experience of having students grade teachers, and their dissatisfaction with their grades influencing whether a university asked an adjunct professor to return the following semester. Grade inflation is real.

pakitan• 7 years ago

To deny someone admission due to poor academics is to deprive the university of revenue.

I understand and agree this would be the case for low ranked universities but the article supposedly refers to an Ivy League uni or at least something close. Don't these universities have fixed admission numbers along with the ability to pick from the best and brightest? They don't have to fight for students, students have to fight to get into the uni. In this case it just doesn't make sense to lower the bar.

What happens after rich kids bribe their way into college? I teach them

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