A Harvard student argues that admissions based purely on the amount of money random parents give — and this sort of quid pro quo gift is typically, apparently, in the hundreds of millions — should be encouraged, and stuff like legacies and athletics not so much. Indeed, Harvard — laboring under a $53.2 billion endowment — would do well to increase the price of pure money admission, lest the school’s wealth drop by a perilous amount.
It’s an interesting model. There are currently 2,781 billionaires in the world, and let’s assume a healthy chunk of them (Musk has eight children and counting) want their kids to go to Harvard. Straightforwardly monetizing Harvard admissions – setting the price as clearly as countries offering citizenship, for instance, set prices – and taking a lot of billionaire kids every year, would top up that b$53.2 by a good amount.
Assuming Harvard’s goal is at least a one hundred billion dollar endowment (which I think most reasonable people would consider a pretty solid pile, plus a rainy day fund), and say they want to reach that goal in ten years (again, a reasonable aim) you could do the math with not much trouble and simply let billionaire applicants know what the winning number would be.
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OTOH –Mr UD proposes targeting much-childed billionaires… oh, okay, here’s a partial list —
- Frank VanderSloot: Has 14 children.
- Farris Wilks: Has 11 children.
- David Duffield: Has 10 children.
- Jerry Moyes: Has 10 children.
- Nelson Peltz: Has 10 children.
- Richard Schulze: Has 10 children.
- Fred Smith: Has 10 children.
— and communicating to them that there will be an auction. Brilliant.
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Update: Gevalt. My buddy Philip tells me the correct ‘number of Muskian progéniture’ is 13.
Update: 14.