| 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' "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. Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter "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' 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. Watch the Top Videos on NBCNews.com 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. Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook © 2012 NBCNews.com Reprints  |
10/11/2012
Paying $2 million to get your kid into Harvard?
Baltimore fire kills 4 kids and a woman, injures 2 firefighters
 Credit: Patrick Semansky Officials stand in front of a fire-damaged house in Baltimore, where an early morning fire claimed the lives of an adult and four children on Oct. 11, 2012. By NBC News staff and wire services An intense fire that ripped through a row house in northeast Baltimore early Thursday killed an adult and four children, a fire official said. Fire department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright says firefighters were called around 2 a.m. and arrived to find heavy fire and smoke coming from the first and second floors of the home. Cartwright said there were "intense flames coming out of every window and door in this structure." Baltimore City Fire Chief James Clack told NBC affiliate WBALTV that 10 people were in home, and five escaped before the fire crews arrived. One man jumped from a second-floor window to escape the blaze, he said. The man was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for treatment, where he was in stable condition. Others, including a woman who handed a baby out of the home, escaped before firefighters arrived at the scene. Cartwright said he believes the baby is in good condition. Firefighters found the bodies of five people during a search and rescue operation. The victims are believed to be a grandmother and her four grandchildren, Cartwright said. Their identities were not immediately released, but family members told NBC affiliate WBALTV at the scene that the children were 1, 3, 5 and 7. The woman who died was 55, they said.  Credit: Patrick Semansky Barbara Hopkins, left, hugs her grandson, whose nickname was only given as Mick, outside of Hopkins' son's house in Baltimore on Oct. 11, 2012, after an early morning fire claimed the lives of an adult and four children. Two firefighters were injured while battling the blaze when one fell through the second floor of the home into the basement. Both were taken to Bayview and were in stable condition. The fire was brought under control around 3:45 a.m. Hours later, officials were still at the scene investigating while about 20 neighbors watched from a roped off area. The exterior of the two-story brick home was blackened by the fire, and wood beams in the roof were visible. Fire investigators and police arson detectives told WBALTV were investigating what caused the blaze, but said they believed the fire may have started in the basement. Barbara Hopkins, who was standing outside the building, said her son had been in the fire and was being treated for third-degree burns at Bayview. She told WBALTV her son was the man who had jumped out the window and did so head first. "He's severely burned," she said. "This is awful." The Associated Press contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
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3 dead, worker rescued in parking garage collapse
| View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com. By NBCMiami.com and NBC News staff Rescue workers who pulled a badly injured worker from the wreckage of a collapsed college parking garage in Florida early Thursday were continuing to search for the last person believed to have been in the structure when it collapsed. Miami fire and rescue crews rescued the construction worker around 1 a.m. Thursday at the Miami-Dade College in Doral, Fla.,Miami fire officials said. But in order to get the man out, medics had to amputate both of his legs above the knees, authorities said. Another trapped worker who had been freed was in critical condition.  Alan Diaz / AP Firefighters remove a victim from the rubble early morning Oct. 11 in Doral, Fla, after a section of a parking garage under construction at Miami-Dade College campus collapsed. Eight people were hospitalized at Miami-area hospitals after the Wednesday collapse, which killed three workers, according to a statement from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. Hundreds of rescuers rushed to the scene Wednesday afternoon when a portion of the five-story parking garage at 38oo N.W. 115 Ave. collapsed in what authorities call a "pancake-style collapse." Police said it appeared that only construction workers were on site. Read the original report | More from NBCMiami.com The garage was under construction and had yet to open, so no students were in danger, said college spokesman Juan Mendieta. The debris was about 20 feet high and a crane and heavy truck were inside the work area when the garage collapsed. Street around the garage were completely blocked off. Aerial footage showed firefighters escorting a man, who appeared to be a construction worker, out of the garage, while rescuers apparently searched through the debris.  J Pat Carter / AP Firefighter look over the rubble after a section of a parking garage under construction at Miami-Dade College in Doral, Fla., collapsed on Oct. 10, 2012. Victoria Buczynski of Miami said she saw the collapse while she was working at Gurkha Cigars directly across the street from the construction site. "It fell to the ground like a house of cards," Buczynski said. "The construction workers started running out, screaming. It was loud. Our entire building shook." Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter The construction of the 1,855-space garage was nearly complete. Ground was broken on the $22.5 million project in February, and it was to be finished in December, according to the website of the contractor, Ajax Building Corp. William P. Byrne, Ajax president and chief executive officer, said in a statement said an internal review was being launched to determine the cause. "While we do not yet know the cause of this tragic collapse, we are committed to working actively and cooperatively with our design and construction partners and local, state and federal authorities to determine the exact cause of this accident," the statement said. The statement also said safety was a priority for the company. More content from NBCNews.com:
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Environmental nonprofit's donation tough to figure
| By Michael Beckel "Environmentalists punish companies without protecting people" is the headline of a column that appeared on the website of the American Action Forum a year ago. The group has called for increased domestic production of oil, coal and natural gas. Officials there have criticized President Barack Obama's "eagerness to speed our progression to a low-carbon economy" and argued that the administration is "regulating coal out of existence." The American Action Forum is also connected with a nonprofit and a super PAC that have spent millions of dollars on ads backing anti-regulation Republican candidates since 2010. So why did the Energy Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization that funds the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice give the conservative nonprofit a six-figure donation last year? Records obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that the Energy Foundation, touted as the "leading funder of projects that address climate change," awarded the American Action Forum a $125,000 grant in 2011 for "high-level outreach and communications around carbon policy." Jenny Coyle, a spokeswoman for the Energy Foundation, says her organization is "proud to fund a wide variety of organizations whether they are viewed as progressive or conservative." "Clean energy is not a partisan issue," Coyle continued. "We believe that all demographics and groups will see the benefits of a prosperous and healthy clean energy economy." Officials at the American Action Forum declined to comment about the grant. Center for Public Integrity: Donation tough to figure According to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the Energy Foundation doled out more than $97 million in grants in 2010 to projects aimed at the adoption of stronger fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, the promotion of renewable energy technologies and the retirement of existing coal-fired power plants, among others. Against that backdrop, the American Action Forum stands out as an unlikely beneficiary. The group is not known as an environmental advocate. One of its projects tracks coal plants in the U.S. that are likely to close down under the Obama administration's new "regulatory burdens." American Action Forum's president is Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who headed the Congressional Budget Office under President George W. Bush, served as top adviser to 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain and has had stints as a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. Its board includes former Nixon operative Fred Malek, former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, former GOP Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and former GOP Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the consumer group Public Citizen — which has also received grants from the Energy Foundation — says the American Action Forum "is not dedicated to clean energy." He says the group favors deregulation and ending federal subsidies for renewable energy technologies that would tilt the playing field toward "established, traditional dirty sources of energy." Catrina Rorke, the director of energy policy at the American Action Forum, argues that federal subsidies "are not the best tool to integrate new fuels into the market." "We don't want to preferentially support one kind of energy over another," Rorke said. Organized under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code, American Action Forum is focused on policy research and is affiliated with the American Action Network, which engages in advocacy as a "social welfare" group organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. The groups are also linked to a super PAC called the Congressional Leadership Fund. All three organizations share office space and personnel, with Coleman and Malek playing leadership roles in each. Malek founded both the American Action Network, where he is still a board member, and the American Action Forum, where he serves as chairman of the board. He also is a board member of the Congressional Leadership Fund. Coleman, meanwhile, is a board member of the American Action Forum and is the chairman of both the American Action Network and the Congressional Leadership Fund. Veteran GOP operative Brian Walsh — who served as the National Republican Congressional Committee's political director during the 2010 election cycle — is the president of both the American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, which have run a plethora of attack ads against Democrats. Records filed with the Federal Election Commission show that during the 2010 election cycle alone, American Action Network reported spending more than $18 million on political advertisements — more than any other "social welfare" nonprofit, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In this fall's hotly contested race in Minnesota's 8th District, it has attacked Democrat Rick Nolan for siding with the Environmental Protection Agency against a mining company. Nolan's campaign has said the former congressman will support the mining industry "without rolling back environmental and safety regulations for workers." Similarly, in the highly competitive race in Ohio's 16th District, the Congressional Leadership Fund has spent more than $1 million on ads blasting Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton. Among the reasons given to oppose Sutton in November? Her vote during the 111th Congress in support of the so-called "cap-and-trade" legislation, which sought to establish both a cap on carbon emissions and a requirement that large utilities in each state increase the percentage of electricity they produce from renewable sources. Donors to the Congressional Leadership Fund include Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country's leading producers of coal, which made a $5,000 donation from its corporate treasury in April. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Congressional Leadership Fund has also received contributions from the political action committees connected to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Edison Electric Institute, energy conglomerate Koch Industries, oil refining giant Valero Energy and Exelon, which is the largest nuclear power plant operator in the U.S. and last year was awarded a $646 million loan guarantee by the Department of Energy for one of its solar generation subsidiaries. Super donors Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino owner from Nevada, and Bob Perry, the millionaire home builder from Texas, have both given generously to the Congressional Leadership Fund. Neither American Action Forum nor American Action Network is required to publicly disclose donor information. A review of IRS filings by the Center for Responsive Politics, however, found that donors to the American Action Network include the Republican Jewish Coalition, the American Natural Gas Alliance and Crossroads GPS, the nonprofit sister organization of conservative super PAC juggernaut American Crossroads. The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit independent Investigative news outlet. More from Open Channel:
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