A recent college admission scandal has created havoc among universities. It was the largest ever college admissions prosecution for the Justice Department. It involved 200 agents nationwide and resulted in charges against people in six states. The parents of some of the nation’s most privileged children aimed to buy spots for their students at top universities.
50 people were charged by federal prosecutors in a scene to buy spots in the freshman class at Yale, Stanford, and other big-name schools. Many parents paid for elaborate ways, aiming to help their child get into the big-name universities of the country. The cases between the students differed, but all focused on the same goal of getting into that university by all means.
Among them was teenage girl who became a soccer recruit at Yale, yet she did not play soccer. Her parents had to pay 1.2 million for her admission.
Another student with no experience rowing gained a spot on the University of Southern California crew team. The student used a photograph of another person in a boat to prove her skills. To pay for this extreme admission, her parents wired $200,000 into a special account.
A high school boy was falsely deemed to have a learning disability so he would be accepted into the University of Southern California. He claimed this in order to take his standardized test with a complicit proctor, which would ensure the right score needed to get in. His parents had to have paid at least $50,000.
Parents first paid a college prep organization to correct the answers on the tests of students. After that, the organization bribed college coaches to help admit the students into college. The students then took on roles as recruited athletes, regardless of their true abilities, in order to be admitted. Federal court documents also said that some of the defendants created fake athletic profiles for the students, in order for them to appear as successful athletes.
The most surprising aspect of this case, was that some parents involved in the scandal were well-known. According to officials , parents included ‘Full House’ actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli; the actress Felicity Huffman; and William E. McGlashan Jr., a partner at the private equity firm TPG.
This whole scandal showed the unfortunate elaborate lengths that wealthy parents are willing to go in order to admit their children into competitive American universities. However, in doing this, those parents cheated other hard-working students out of the chance at a good college education.
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