Is it easier for the rich and influential to get into top tier Western universities?

[Jin Chacha]

While reading about the new PM Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi I came across the fact that he has an engineering degree from UCLA. So out of curiosity I did some google searches on the educational qualifications of some other politicians and was rather surprised as quite a few of them have studied from some very prestigious universities. Admittedly I have mostly relied on google/wikipedia so the info might not be entirely accurate but it cant all be wrong either. For example, Khawaja Asif and Marvi Memon apparently have a masters degrees from LSE, Ahsan Iqbal and Moonis Elahi are graduates of Wharton School Upenn, Mariam Aurengzeb has studied at Kings college, Danial Aziz has studied at Boston University, Law minister Zahid Hamid and Shah Mehmood Qureshi are Cambridge graduates and Sindh Chief minister Murad Ali Shah apparently went to Stanford.

Now there are some well respected politicians like Aitezaz Ahsan or Waseem Sajjad who no one would doubt going to Cambridge or Sartaj Aziz who apparently went to Harvard but I do have doubts about the qualifications of some of the people mentioned in the last paragraph. Similarly, people from strong feudal backgrounds such as the Bhuttos and Jatois or former president Farooq Leghari are all Oxford/Cambridge graduates.

While it was pretty common for the elite feudal families to send their children to Oxford/Cambridge in the colonial era but is that still the case? Is it still possible to get into top tier western universities if you are rich and/or influential enough or am I not giving these people enough credit for their academic excellence?

PS: I just read that Donald Trump also went to Wharton School

 

[Leo23]

of course. you can get into harvard and stanford with poor grades if you give them enough money which they like to call as "donation"

a regular person can of course not afford this much money. same reason why bilawal a very average student got into oxford.

 

[Jin Chacha]

of course. you can get into harvard and stanford with poor grades if you give them enough money which they like to call as "donation"

a regular person can of course not afford this much money. same reason why bilawal a very average student got into oxford.

Yes that is probably the case with the really influential families like the Bhuttos but I still cant get my head around some of the others. It seems these donations can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars so I dont know how some of the others who dont belong to feudal families can afford them. Either they really are more competent then they look or they just got some of those short courses/diploma type qualifications to make their cvs look good.

 

[Enigma_]

Of course that's the case. As is all around the world. Money talks.

 

[Jin Chacha]

But even if you are admitted won't you still need a certain level of competence to complete the coursework and graduate? I assume a degree in political science from cambridge wouldn't be a walk in the park.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Yes.
Here the countries like Germany standout which provides free education and have some of the top universities.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

But even if you are admitted won't you still need a certain level of competence to complete the coursework and graduate? I assume a degree in political science from cambridge wouldn't be a walk in the park.

Yes wont be a walk in the park but middle class even upper middle class cant even afford to go there and study.

 

[Jin Chacha]

Yes wont be a walk in the park but middle class even upper middle class cant even afford to go there and study.

I meant even if you get in on the basis of money, you still have to be pretty smart to graduate and I doubt a lot of these scions of political families are that hardworking.

 

[Buffet]

I meant even if you get in on the basis of money, you still have to be pretty smart to graduate and I doubt a lot of these scions of political families are that hardworking.

You can graduate with low grades or high grades. Legacy admissions are common in ivy and then you have families who are big donors.