A former Stanford University admissions officer has disputed Kemi Badenoch’s long-standing claim that she once secured an offer to study pre-med in the United States.
Gatekeepers News reports that for years, Badenoch has referenced the supposed offer as part of her personal story, often highlighting it in interviews as evidence of her parents’ financial struggles despite her strong academic ability.
In a 2017 interview with the Huffington Post, she said, “I had actually got admission into medical school in the US – I got into Stanford pre-med – and I got into medical school in Nigeria, but I came here (the UK) because being a citizen, it was just a lot cheaper.”
The claim also appeared in other media outlets. The Times last year reported that “At 16, her US SAT scores won her a partial pre-med scholarship to Stanford, but her family still couldn’t afford the place.”
However, Stanford’s own website notes that the institution does not offer a pre-med major, “For any of the health professions, you may major in any discipline.”
Jon Reider, who served as Stanford’s admissions officer at the time and oversaw international applications and financial aid, contradicted Badenoch’s account.
The former admissions officer insisted he would have been directly responsible if such an offer had been made, adding that Stanford’s process made Badenoch’s version unlikely
He told The Guradian UK, “Although 30 years have passed, I would definitely remember if we had admitted a Nigerian student with any financial aid. The answer is that we did not do so.”
“I assure you that we would not have admitted a student based on test scores alone, nor would we have mailed an invitation to apply to any overseas students based on test scores. O-levels would not have been sufficient, and we would have been very nervous admitting a 16-year-old. She would have had to have an extraordinary record.”
He also dismissed the claim of a partial scholarship being offered but unaffordable, saying, “If an applicant needed, say, $30,000 a year to attend Stanford, we would offer them the full amount. There was no point in offering them less because they would not have been able to attend. If we admitted them, we wanted them to enrol.”
Reider stressed that none of his admission decisions during his tenure were overturned by senior officials.
He said, “None of my decisions as the admission officer was overruled by any of the deans whom I worked for.”
