Washington Monthly - September/October 2019 - 18

SUMMER OF SCAM
Elite universities are making millions off of pre-college
programs for teens. What are they really selling?

A

mong the thousands of personal appeals on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe, you'll find a 2017 campaign for
a young woman named Kirstin, a then high school junior
with wavy light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a smile that hints at
suppressed excitement.
"Kirstin's Invited to Stanford!" the page, created by Kirstin's aunt, declares. "My 16-year-old niece has been offered a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After working hard her entire
school career to achieve a goal, she has done it!"
Kirstin, it turns out, was not admitted as an undergraduate, but was raising funds for an "Intensive Law & Trial"
summer program offered on the Stanford University campus.
Tuition for the ten-day program runs to $4,095, not including
airfare and pocket money. "Stanford, one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, is impressed enough with
her to have invited her to this program in Palo Alto, California
this summer," the post continues. "Her extended family is trying hard to raise the deposit of $800.00 by week's end so this
opportunity does not slip through her fingers."
Search "pre-college" on GoFundMe.com and you'll find
dozens of similar campaigns from hopeful students dazzled by
the allure of two weeks on an elite campus. "Going to the Sum18  September/October 2019

mer @ Brown PreCollege Program would give me a preview of
what life would be like if I attend the school of my dreams,"
reads a 2018 campaign by Benjina, from Newark, New Jersey.
"This program will give me the experience of a lifetime," writes
Yakeleen, a high schooler from Tucson, Arizona, hoping to raise
$2,200 to attend Harvard's pre-college program. "Coming from a
low income background while being a first generation student,
this is a grand oppurtunity [sic] I intend on taking advantage of."
These posts reflect the growing trend of summer "precollege" programs at the nation's most prestigious universities.
Stanford, which launched its "pre-collegiate studies" program in
2012, hosts three-week summer sessions for high schoolers with
course options on more than fifty different subjects, in addition to the mock trial program Kirstin hoped to attend. Similar
programs abound at other elite institutions. In fact, of the top
forty schools ranked in U.S. News & World Report, all but one-
Dartmouth-offer some sort of summer program for high
school students (and, in some cases, even middle schoolers).
"More and more colleges and universities are offering shortterm on-campus programs that offer a taste of what life would
be like at their institution," reports the International Association for College Admission Counseling.

Chris Matthews

By Anne Kim



http://www.GoFundMe.com

Washington Monthly - September/October 2019

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