Case in point, in his book Red Notice, Bill Browder says pretty candidly that he was a poor student, but he was admitted to Stanford because his Grandfather was

Case in point, in his book Red Notice, Bill Browder says pretty candidly that he was a poor student, but he was admitted to Stanford because his Grandfather was Chairman of the US Communist Party back in the day. More recently there has been a bit of scandal related to thinly veiled bribes for admissions involving a few celebrities. Where I went to school, ARAMCO endows the petroleum engineering department. Saudi students tended to sit in a V-formation during exams, with the brightest of them at the tip. Professors all knew what was going on, but you can’t just kick out kids whose sponsor pays your six-figure salary. Frankly, I don’t think academic credentials are a useful proxy measurement of abilities for the reasons you brought up.