Word: kopko
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After getting his degree, Michael E. Kopko ’07 did what many recent college grads do—packed up his stuff and moved into an even smaller living space in New York. However, instead of choosing (selling his soul to) Goldman Sachs, he decided to gather some of his friends from high school and start his own company: GradeFund.com. GradeFund connects college students to sponsors who pay them for their good grades. Potential sponsors range from parents to prospective employers. People who pay you to get good grades? Sounds like parents...awesome parents. And this isn?...
...Kopko recognizes that this is small potatoes, considering that many students are accumulating debt at a rate of $20,000 and up a year. "Our service doesn't solve the problem, but it's a step down that path," he says...
...Even though he's only 24, this isn't Kopko's first education-related business. When he was a freshman at Harvard, Kopko hired a maid to tidy his dorm room and soon had friends asking how they could do the same. Sensing a good business opportunity, he started DormAid. When the Harvard Crimson heard of the business, the staff wrote a scathing editorial. "They said it's a service that divides classes into the haves and have-nots," explains Kopko. "At the time, I was upset. But looking back, the Crimson did so much for me, I should send...
...After the article ran, a media whirlwind ensued, and Kopko appeared on the Daily Show and was quoted in the New York Times. DormAid took off and is now available on more than 65 college campuses. The company is valued at about $3 million...
...Like DormAid, GradeFund has arrived amid raised eyebrows. Isn't it supporting the wealthiest students rather than the neediest? (Kopko says a range of students are signing up.) Couldn't students use the money to just buy pizza? (Donors can have checks sent to the tuition office rather than directly to the student.) And won't it encourage students to obsess even more about grades? Kopko isn't worried. "So far, the closest thing I've gotten to a critique was an administrator at Adelphi University who posed the question, "Might this increase the incentives for cheating?'" he says...