# What's the most desperate college-admissions stunt you've seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 11, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400 "2013-04-11T13:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/21 "2013-04-12T09:00:33Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > Anyone here work in college admissions, particularly at a selective school? My daughter is a junior in high school, and let me just say – we need a desperate gimmick to get her into a top school. I know you’re after frivolous answers but as a serious answer you might consider sending her abroad. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/22 "2013-04-12T12:10:30Z")
I once heard somewhere that you could get a free pass if you claimed to be part of an unrepresented race or ethnic group. I’d imagine that would be tough to prove, though, unless you really are part of either group. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/23 "2013-04-12T12:42:06Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > There was that time Anonymous User killed 9 hookers and arranged their bodies to spell MIT. It only takes seven dead hookers to spell MIT. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/24 "2013-04-12T12:54:08Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > It only takes seven dead hookers to spell MIT. You got that question in the admissions interview, too, huh? > [@even\_sven](#): > > I don’t have the article handy, but I’ve read of firms that advise parents (always overseas) to donate millions of dollars to particular universities, under the hopes that will give their kids a free ticket. > > They tend to get upset when that doesn’t work. It sometimes does. “Development slots” certainly exist. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/25 "2013-04-12T13:43:29Z")
> [@kiz](#): > > I once heard somewhere that you could get a free pass if you claimed to be part of an unrepresented race or ethnic group. I’d imagine that would be tough to prove, though, unless you really are part of either group. I doubt that you’d get a “free pass” for being from an underrepresented group. My understanding is that today college admissions is done on a point system. You get so many points for a 4.0 GPA, fewer points for a 3.5 GPA; so many points for a perfect SAT score; so many points for being a legacy; so many points for being a flautist when the orchestra needs a new one (but perhaps no points for being a trombonist if they already have enough); etc. So even if you’re the only applicant they’ve seen in years from the Sioux tribe, that might not be enough. Even being from a wealthy, philanthropic family might not be enough. I’ve heard that Harvard or Yale could populate the entire freshman class with class valedictorians who had perfect SAT scores, since there are so many of them. (Plus they really do want a mixture of people in the class.) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/26 "2013-04-12T19:54:12Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > It only takes seven dead hookers to spell MIT. I could do it with a pair of legs, a torso and two arms. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/27 "2013-04-12T20:13:26Z")
The valedictorian of my high school class (1987) had her college applications all professionally printed and shrink-wrapped (I suppose so they wouldn’t be contaminated by contact with the applications of lesser mortals). I can’t remember where she ended up. A friend of mine from the following year wrote and illustrated a short (4-page) comic as his application essay. He went to MIT. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/28 "2013-04-12T20:15:39Z")
A girl I knew baked one of her college professors a cake so she wouldn’t lose her scholarship. Apparently he said at the beginning of the semester “If you bake me a carrot cake, I’ll give you a ‘C’.” She was the only student who took him up on it, and showed up in class with a carrot cake once she was certain she wasn’t going to pass. She continued to try and took the final, but reminded him of his promise (with, perhaps, a hint of letting his boss know)… and got her ‘C’. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/29 "2013-04-12T20:21:08Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I could do it with a pair of legs, a torso and two arms. To be fair, that could look more like MOT, depending on the corpulence of the deceased. Besides, you don’t want MIT to think you’re doing the _minimum_ effort. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400/30 "2013-04-12T20:49:41Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > > [@Jragon](#): > > > > There was that time Anonymous User killed 9 hookers and arranged their bodies to spell MIT. > > It only takes seven dead hookers to spell MIT. It takes nine if you’re using a serif font. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-desperate-college-admissions-stunt-youve-seen/655400.md?page=1)