A Hong Kong couple’s claims that a former Harvard professor bilked them of $2 million on promises he would get their sons into Harvard is a cautionary tale for parents entangled in the highly competitive college-admissions roulette, experts say.
"When it comes to college admissions, there are no guarantees — period," said Mark Kantrowitz, a college-financing and planning expert from Cranberry Township, Pa. "If someone tells you they can get you into Harvard, it's a scam."
Gerald and Lily Chow, both residents of China, say in their lawsuit filed in 2010 in U.S. District Court in Boston that they paid Mark Zimny $2 million on promises he would get the Chows’ two sons into an elite American university, preferably Harvard. The Chows also claim Zimny said he would help funnel donations from the Chows to other elite colleges to circumvent alleged racism against Asian donors, according to the lawsuit.
The Chows accuse Zimny of fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment — and they want their millions back. Zimny has denied the allegations in court papers, The Boston Globe reported.
The lawsuit is making its way through federal court and may be scheduled for a November hearing, according to the Globe.
"The most talented of students apply to Harvard — and the most talented of students don't get in," Kantrowitz said. "This case is mind-boggling."
'Killer for our industry'
While the Chow case is extreme, Kantrowitz said, parents nationwide are shelling out big bucks to try to get their children into top-ranked institutions, hiring consultants to help them prepare for exams and essays needed for college applications.
“I am outraged on behalf of the industry, and it is a killer for our industry,” said Michele A. Hernández, president of Hernandez College Consulting in Weybridge, Vt.
Hernández is a former Dartmouth admissions officer. National Public Radio profiled her in 2008, describing how she charges $40,000 to help students get into Ivy League schools, and $14,000 for a four-day boot camp on preparing essays for college applications. Critics have accused of her writing essays herself on behalf of students, a claim she denies.
"I don't get students in, students get themselves in," she said.
Since the industry has no regulations, Hernández said, parents should scrutinize credentials of a consultant. She said people who are consultants should have worked in a college admissions office and not just for the institution.
"In this business, ethics are so hard to come by — and people need to stop obsessing over Harvard,” she said.
Last year, Harvard accepted only 6.2 percent of the 34,950 applicants to the Class of 2015, according to The Harvard Crimson, the university's student publication. Harvard’s admissions rate was the lowest in the Ivy League, below Columbia’s 6.9 percent rate and Yale’s 7.35, the Crimson reported.
Harvard’s senior communications officer, Jeff Neal, told NBC News the college is skeptical of admissions consulting agencies.
“While it is certainly possible that in individual cases an admissions consultant can be helpful to an applicant, we have encountered no evidence to indicate that is the case generally," Neal told NBC News in an email. "More importantly, our process — and the very wide range of information we collect about applicants — is designed to give us the broadest possible view of their qualifications, regardless of whether they used a consultant or not.”
'You can buy your way in'
According to the lawsuit, Zimny is a founder of the education consultancy group IvyAdmit Consulting LLC. Zimny's agency is described as a Connecticut limited liability company with an office in Cambridge, Mass., according to the lawsuit.
In an online search of the firm’s website, Zimny’s name was no longer included in the staff list, and attempts by NBC News to reach officials at IvyAdmit Consulting were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The Globe characterized Zimny's target group as Chinese MBA applicants and children of wealthy Asian families.
“A lot of them don’t understand how the American college system works,” Elizabeth Stone, a consultant who has been approached by many Chinese hopefuls, told the Globe. “I think the mentality is, ‘you can buy your way in.’ ”
The Chows have refused interviews, and their Boston-based lawyers, Marjorie Sommer Cooke and Kevin W. Clancy, also were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
The Chows said in the lawsuit that Zimny introduced himself to the couple in 2007 during their eldest son's ninth-grade graduation from Eaglebrook School, a private boarding school in Deerfield, Mass.
According to the lawsuit, Zimny's credentials checked out: He was a lecturer and visiting assistant professor at Harvard and the Graduate School of Education between 2001 and 2005. But he was no longer affiliated with the college after 2005.
The Chows said they believed Zimny would get the Chow boys into the prestigious school.
The Chows wired Zimny at least $8,000 a month for their sons in 2007 under an agreement with Zimny, court documents showed.
"In the summer of 2008, Zimny recommended to Mr. and Mrs. Chow that rather than paying him $4,000 a month for each child for his consulting services, they instead deposit with IvyAdmit a $1,000,000 retainer for First Son and a $1,000,000 retainer for Second Son," according to the lawsuit. "Zimny represented that this $2 million retainer would be part of a big pool of money contributed by similar Asian, mostly Korean, families. He stated that the purpose of this pool of money was to help their sons and daughters gain admission to colleges of their choice in the United States."
The Chows wired Zimny the $2 million over a period of several months in late 2008 and early 2009, the lawsuit states.
In exchange, several of Zimny’s employees also helped tutor not only the Chow boys, but also their father, a jewelry magnate.
After some time, the Chows grew increasingly suspicious and asked about the use of their money, and the Chows severed relations in the fall of 2009.
The Chow sons didn't get into Harvard, but have since enrolled in Ivy League institutions, which have not been disclosed, according to the Globe.
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