[rahimnathwani]

"This is enough money to supply extra supervision and also give a full scholarship to another student."

Imagine there are 10 students for 5 spots, and there is an objective ranking from most-qualified (#1) to least-qualified (#10).

Now let's assume student #10 can pay that $200k. That funds their spot plus another spot. So instead of admitting:

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

You can now admit:

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10}

Doesn't this seem unfair to candidates #7 to #9, who are more qualified than #10, but will end up with a less valuable credential?

[sobani]

#7 to #9 would never get admitted anyway.

The question you should ask is whether being able to admit #6 is worth it.

If #10 is some trust fund baby who couldn't study himself out of a wet paper bag, then probably not.

But if #10 is merely 'good' it might be worth it to be able to admit just-0.1-GPA-short-of-great #6.

[rahimnathwani]

Consider the degree not as education, but as a signalling device.

If you admit #10, then they will beat out #7-#9 in the job market, increasing lifetime earnings at the expense of the others.

If you don't admit #10, then #6-#10 will compete on an equal footing.

The latter may be the outcome you want.