Stanford University: We never offered Kemi Badenoch any scholarship

Stanford University has rebutted claims that the prestigious institution offered Kemi Badenoch, UK conservative leader, a medical school scholarship at the age of 16.

This statement was made to counter the narrative spread by the Conservatives on how Kemi Badenoch was offered a pre-med degree scholarship at 6 but had to reject it for certain reasons.

According to the narration spread by Kemi Badenoch herself and the Conservatives, she was offered the scholarship because of her extraordinarily high SAT exam score.

Jon Reider, the Stanford admissions officer at the time of Badenoch’s application has revealed that he would have been responsible for offering Badenoch a place but had not done so.

“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,” he said.

Speaking further, he revealed the need the university’s preference of offering fully-funded scholarships to extraordinary students and not partly-funded as Badenoch claimed.

“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.

“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.

“We were very generous and could offer only about 30 full scholarships a year. Some turned us down for Harvard, Yale.

“I made the selections myself, subject to the approval of the dean. I was never overruled by any of the three deans for whom I worked,” Reider added.

To corroborate his story, Ivy League admissions coaches, several Stanford graduates and an Ivy League vice-provost reiterated that admissions cannot be offered proactively on exam results alone.

Likewise, the university website reads: “Stanford does not have a pre-med major. For any of the health professions, you may major in any discipline.” Medicine is a graduate degree.

Nevertheless, the Conservative Party rejected the rebuttal, saying it was a common colloquialism to refer to taking a science undergraduate as “pre-med” especially in the UK.

Liberal Democrats have begun to pile pressure on her to reveal the full story behind her apparent offer having previously accused Rachel Reeves of a hole-filled CV that has contributed to the economic crisis in the UK.

“Kemi Badenoch spent months asking questions of the chancellor regarding her CV. It’s now time for her to answer some of her own,” a party spokesperson said.