想進哈佛大學? 讓你的父母去捐錢捐樓就行!

The numbers are ruthless: Out of more than 40,000 applications a year to Harvard University, not quite 2,000 make the final cut. Just one admitted for every 19 rejected. Every year high school seniors with straight A's, perfect test scores and stellar recommendations wonder why they didn't make it.

數據是殘酷的：每年有超過4萬名學生申請哈佛大學，但僅有兩千人被錄取。每錄取一名學生，就有19名學生遭到拒絕。拿到全A、成績全優、手握重量級推薦信，每年都有很多這樣的高中生不知道爲什麼自己沒有被錄取。

Want a place at Harvard? Persuade your parents to give the university a nice gift. A new building, perhaps, or a million dollars for a fellowship. That sort of thing.

想在哈佛大學讀書嗎？說服你的父母給這所大學送份好禮：一棟新樓，或者一百萬美元的獎學金，諸如此類。

It has long been understood that you can, to some extent, buy your way into many of the US's prestigious universities. There are certainly plenty of examples of people with more money than sense being admitted to elite educational institutions.

長期以來，人們一直認爲在某種程度上，美國的許多名牌大學花錢就可以上。有很多例子可以表明，精英教育機構在錄取時會選擇有錢人，而不是有才的人。

Jared Kushner, for example, got into Harvard despite having a mediocre academic record. To be fair, this may have had nothing to do with his father pledging $2.5m to the university shortly before he was accepted. Perhaps the admissions office just had a hunch that this was the genius who was finally going to bring peace to the Middle East.

比如，特朗普的女婿賈裏德·庫什納學生時期雖然成績平平，卻被哈佛大學錄取。或許，這與他的父親曾在他被錄取之前承諾向哈佛捐贈250萬美元無關。或許，招生辦公室只是預見到，他纔是最終爲中東帶來和平的天才。

While it is no secret that offering financial gifts to certain Ivy League universities may compensate for a lack of natural gifts, the extent to which Harvard's admission process favors relatives of big donors is only now being laid bare.

雖然向某些常春藤盟校捐款有可能彌補天資上的不足早已不是祕密，但哈佛在錄取過程中偏愛大金主的親屬的程度直到最近才被披露出來。

This is thanks to a lawsuit currently under way against Harvard that accuses the university of discriminating against Asian-Americans.

這要歸功於目前針對哈佛歧視亞裔美國人的一場訴訟。

A 2013 email exchange among Harvard administrators, for example, was presented at the trial last week.

比如，上週的庭審中公開了一份2013年校方管理人員之間的電郵往來。

In one email (subject line: "My Hero"), the dean of the university's Kennedy School of Government commends the dean of admissions for doing a great job in extending offers to students with generous parents.

在一封主題名爲“我的英雄”的郵件中，哈佛大學肯尼迪政府學院院長稱讚招生辦負責人在招收“金主”子女方面做得很好。

"Once again you have done wonders. I am simply thrilled about the folks you were able to admit," the email says. "Redacted has already committed to a building."

郵件中說：“你再次創造了奇蹟。看到你招進來的這些學生，我簡直太開心了。某某已經承諾要捐一棟樓。”

The other people described as "big wins" in the email were connected to donors who had "committed major money for fellowships".

郵件中還將招錄的其它一些學生稱作“大收穫”，因爲他們的背後是“承諾要捐一大筆錢作爲獎學金”的捐贈者。