The calculation was beyond basic - I read somewhere here that it was around $3m that they were getting from Cal Grants.
Around 8 years ago, I heard (from a friend of mine) that the min donation to guarantee admission to Stanford was ~$10m. Wouldn’t be surprised that it’s even a higher number nowadays…
So the calculation was that a report showing how much unfairness there is in the admissions process will hurt the Stanford ‘brand’ by more that $3M per year. Ouch.
Their benefit is also much clearer, the $10M donation you mentioned can clearly and directly help a lot of students.
The benefit is clear, I would argue the detriment is also clear: Stanford is arguing that bribery is an acceptable method of doing business, not something that deserves opprobrium.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/trump-se...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/universities...
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/trumps-war-big-law-le...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/07/tim-...