Hong Kong in hot pursuit of Ivy League education

By Alexis Lai. How much would you pay to get your child into an Ivy League university?
For Gerard and Lily Chow, it seems the sky was the limit. In 2007, the Hong Kong couple enlisted Harvard-lecturer-turned-admissions-consultant Mark Zimny to steer their two sons through elite U.S. boarding schools into a top-ranked university-- preferably Harvard.
For a monthly $4000 fee per child, their "total education management" package included extensive admissions counseling, arranging homestays, private tutoring, and extra-curricular activities, whereby Zimny and his team functioned as "parents away from parents" for their sons. The Chows later switched to a retainer of $1 million per child.
But in 2010, before their sons applied to university, the Chows sued Zimny to recover their $2 million retainer, alleging fraud, breach of conduct, and unjust enrichment, according to court documents. Zimny denied any wrongdoing to CNN, alleging the Chows sought to end their relationship after "poaching" one of his contract staff as a cheaper replacement. Read more...