4 ms·

the age old unspoken donation "coincidence" this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too, the only reason parents got caught up in the varsity

the age old unspoken donation "coincidence" this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too, the only reason parents got caught up in the varsity blues scandal was that they were too explicit... old money donates the new library and "hopes" for the best

KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
> this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too That's the entire point and feature of these elite institutions (more specifically, their undergraduate division and business schools), to connect wealth with brilliant people. They are the traditional social institutions of innovation and entrepreneurship before incubators like YC were a thing. If you remove the wealth aspects, then the Ivies are no different than any other research state school.
- hinkley 3y ago
  They’re worse. Aside from their football programs, none of these other schools have gotten as comfortable with looking the other way for The Greater Good.
- kelipso 3y ago
  It's a great way to further entrench the influence of the rich into public life.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  > brilliant people I think you meant "people who'd like to join the wealthy ones, or maybe already have."
  - graphe 3y ago
    If you wanted to make money, you would choose business over academia. I know one brilliant math/physics researcher who wanted to go to China because they have better scientific research equipment.
hinkley 3y ago
Yeah. My sarcasm meter broke itself as I proclaimed: Harvard, breaking rules for people donating new buildings?! Surely not Harvard.
apwell23 3y ago
> the only reason parents got caught up in the varsity blues scandal was that they were too explicit they weren't rich enough to use the route that they used.
- stronglikedan 3y ago
  That's what "old money" means. They weren't old money.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Old money means inherited, generational wealth. New money means wealth that was mostly based on efforts (not due to passive investments) by the current holder. micromacrofoot1 was trying to distinguish “a lot of money” from “a little bit of money”, but old money is not the correct term for that. From Wikipedia, the varsity blues scandal was about 33 sets of parents paying ~$25M total. That is chump change compared to donating a whole building, which new or old money can do, because they would have access to tens of millions of dollars.
    - DeepSeaTortoise 3y ago
      > Old money means inherited, generational wealth. I'm quite sure Old Money would disagree with your definition of Old Money.
    - micromacrofoot 3y ago
      fair, though I was thinking the context that "old money" is usually old because there's a lot of it... but new/old signaling quantity is probably less true now than ever there's also some behavior involved, traditionally it would be a major social faux pas to ask for special treatment in a traceable way

KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago

> this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too That's the entire point and feature of these elite institutions (more specifically, their undergraduate division and business schools), to connect wealth with brilliant people. They are the traditional social institutions of innovation and entrepreneurship before incubators like YC were a thing. If you remove the wealth aspects, then the Ivies are no different than any other research state school.

hinkley 3y ago
They’re worse. Aside from their football programs, none of these other schools have gotten as comfortable with looking the other way for The Greater Good.
kelipso 3y ago
It's a great way to further entrench the influence of the rich into public life.
AlbertCory 3y ago
> brilliant people I think you meant "people who'd like to join the wealthy ones, or maybe already have."
- graphe 3y ago
  If you wanted to make money, you would choose business over academia. I know one brilliant math/physics researcher who wanted to go to China because they have better scientific research equipment.

hinkley 3y ago

Yeah. My sarcasm meter broke itself as I proclaimed: Harvard, breaking rules for people donating new buildings?! Surely not Harvard.

apwell23 3y ago

> the only reason parents got caught up in the varsity blues scandal was that they were too explicit they weren't rich enough to use the route that they used.

stronglikedan 3y ago
That's what "old money" means. They weren't old money.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Old money means inherited, generational wealth. New money means wealth that was mostly based on efforts (not due to passive investments) by the current holder. micromacrofoot1 was trying to distinguish “a lot of money” from “a little bit of money”, but old money is not the correct term for that. From Wikipedia, the varsity blues scandal was about 33 sets of parents paying ~$25M total. That is chump change compared to donating a whole building, which new or old money can do, because they would have access to tens of millions of dollars.
  - DeepSeaTortoise 3y ago
    > Old money means inherited, generational wealth. I'm quite sure Old Money would disagree with your definition of Old Money.
  - micromacrofoot 3y ago
    fair, though I was thinking the context that "old money" is usually old because there's a lot of it... but new/old signaling quantity is probably less true now than ever there's also some behavior involved, traditionally it would be a major social faux pas to ask for special treatment in a traceable way