Elite families have a familiar playbook for getting their children into America\u2019s most selective universities: wealth, influence, and connections.<\/p>\n
In 2018, one Upper East Side mother wielded all three in an attempt to gain a competitive edge for her son\u2019s application to Penn. She enlisted an old friend: convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
Modeling agent Faith Kates hoped to leverage Epstein\u2019s ties to Marc Rowan, a prominent Penn alumnus and board member. Kates \u2014 who worked as a top executive at Next Management, a modeling and talent agency, until November 2025 \u2014 has a well-documented<\/a> relationship with Epstein. <\/p>\n Records show she introduced Epstein to women on the agency\u2019s books, secretly took his business advice, and regularly met with Epstein long after he admitted guilt<\/a> in a federal plea deal and served 13 months of jail time.<\/p>\n But their decade of now-published correspondence extended well beyond business dealings. Files released by the Department of Justice and reviewed by The Daily Pennsylvanian show how Kates sought Epstein\u2019s assistance to help get her son, Dylan Kogan, a spot in Penn\u2019s Class of 2023.<\/p>\n A University spokesperson wrote that \u201cEpstein had no ties\u201d to the admissions process at Penn. The spokesperson maintained that \u201cPenn makes admissions decisions\u201d based solely on the \u201crequired materials submitted by each applicant.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n Many messages in the DOJ files, including those between Epstein and Kates, contain typos and misspellings. Those errors have been retained as they originally appear in the documents.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n In May 2014, before Kogan entered high school, Kates asked<\/a> Epstein to tell her son how important it was for him to \u201cdo something different to get into a top school.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the advice made its way from Epstein to Kogan is unclear, but Kogan embraced playing tennis and spent his summers working for the Junior Tennis Championship Center, a youth sports nonprofit.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2018, Kogan emailed <\/a>Epstein seeking donations<\/a> as part of a project for JTCC. Soon after, the former financier sent a $10,000 check \u201cfrom jeffrey.\u201d<\/p>\n Kates later sent Epstein what appears to be the text of a letter of recommendation <\/a>from Raymond Benton \u2014 a 1983 Wharton MBA graduate and former<\/a> CEO of JTCC.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the letter, Kogan \u201craised over $70,000 in cash and hundreds of donated rackets for needy kids, which is quite a remarkable achievement for a high school student.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a very smart, ambitious, kind and caring person,\u201d Benton wrote. \u201cI am a graduate of the Wharton MBA program and am keenly aware of the quality of students you are considering for enrollment at the University of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to the DP, Benton wrote that he has \u201cknown Dylan Kogan since he was a child and was delighted to write a letter of recommendation for him to attend Penn.\u201d Benton added that he has \u201cnever met Jeffrey Epstein or communicated with him.\u201d<\/p>\n In October 2018, Kates began soliciting Epstein for advice on her son\u2019s college applications. She floated<\/a> a variety of colleges and universities as options, but set her sights<\/a> on Penn as \u201cthe perfect school for Dylan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe downside is everyone that gets in is a legacy or has a board member working on their behalf,\u201d Kates wrote<\/a> to Epstein.<\/p>\n Rather than accept those odds, Kates urged Epstein to tap his network. She added that Kogan\u2019s school counselor made it \u201cclear\u201d to her that \u201cno one gets in without\u201d connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMark Rowan is on the main penn board he can walk him in easily,\u201d Kates wrote to Epstein.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of the exchange, Rowan \u2014 who earned a Wharton bachelor\u2019s degree in 1984 and a Wharton MBA in 1985 \u2014 served<\/a> on the University Board of Trustees and chaired the Wharton School\u2019s Board of Advisors.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to the DP, a spokesperson for Rowan wrote that the Apollo CEO \u201chad nothing to do with this.\u201d There are no records to indicate that Rowan actually made any effort to help Kogan get admitted to Penn or that Epstein asked him to.<\/p>\n The DP previously reported<\/a> that Rowan maintained contact with Epstein between 2013 and 2016, including phone calls and multiple planned visits to Epstein\u2019s New York home.<\/p>\n In the October 2018 message, Kates said that there was \u201cno room for error,\u201d and if Rowan was unwilling to help, she needed to know because \u201cnow is the time!!!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kates\u2019 fixation on Penn appeared to have intensified after she realized that Harvard University was no longer a realistic option for Kogan.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Kogan] really has no other options other than penn as you have been promising him all along you were going to help him there,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe can\u2019t fuck around here promise me that it\u2019s way way to important.\u201d<\/p>\n Kates suggested<\/a> several ways for Epstein to reach Penn\u2019s admissions office, including through Rowan\u2019s longtime business partner Leon Black, who has no direct ties to the University. For years, Black paid<\/a> Epstein for financial services and advice. Black was later pushed out of the firm he co-founded alongside Rowan because of his relationship with the convicted sex trafficker.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLeon has not arranged,\u201d Epstein replied when pressed by Kates. \u201cYou need to tell me when.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a spokesperson for Black, \u201che had no awareness of this email exchange and had nothing to do with Epstein\u2019s efforts to help this person attend Penn.\u201d The spokesperson added that \u201cEpstein exaggerated, embellished and lied about Mr. Black on many occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n Days later, Epstein followed up<\/a> to ask Kates for further direction: \u201cwhat are my instructions?\u201d<\/p>\n Kates responded<\/a> that Epstein should call Rowan, tell the Apollo co-founder that his \u201cgod son\u201d was applying early decision to Penn, and ask for \u201chis \u2018help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVery simple,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe knows the drill he does this a lot\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Later that day, she sent Epstein copies of her son\u2019s Common App application essay and resume. In response to one message<\/a> from Kates with the subject line \u201cPenn essay,\u201d Epstein simply responded, \u201cNEEDS WORK!!!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n In December 2018 \u2014 at the time when Penn traditionally releases its early decision results \u2014 Kates told Epstein<\/a> her son \u201cgot deferred.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTomorrow is my birthday this is what I want as my bday present,\u201d Kates continued. \u201cPlease call Leon \u2026 we can leave nothing to chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein replied that \u201ca call was made two months ago\u201d and he couldn\u2019t \u201cfigure out what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe theme this year is first generation then minorities then Major donors,\u201d Kates told Epstein. \u201cThis is no joke if you can\u2019t do it tell me and I\u2019ll find another way.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite their efforts, Kogan never enrolled at Penn.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the family wrote that Kogan \u201cdid not attend the University of Pennsylvania.\u201d The DP was unable to confirm whether Kogan received an acceptance from the University after his deferral.<\/p>\n In May 2019, Kogan graduated from high school with an offer to Cornell University<\/a> and a $10,000 congratulatory check<\/a> from Epstein.\u00a0<\/p>\n Isha Chitirala is a News Editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian and can be reached at chitirala@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies economics and political science. Follow her on X @IshaChitirala<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finn Ryan is the Summer Editor-in-Chief at The Daily Pennsylvanian and can be reached at ryan@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies political science and Russian. Follow him on X @FinnRyan_<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elite families have a familiar playbook for getting their children into America\u2019s most selective universities: wealth, influence, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-253283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}