What could they possibly submit in a college application now @lizzzar? They can’t retake the ACT or SAT and certainly can’t use their old scores. Do you think they will have former teachers lining up to write them recommendations?
People ask how Singer was known in this circle of wealth. As I was thinking about it everyone knows this type of guy. At your church or shul, at the club or down the block. He’s “that” guy. Or at school it’s “that” therapist for the 504 /iep. I am not saying they are crooked just we all know that person. When looking for a chess coach in middle school /high school for my son it was" this is the guy “. When we needed tutor” this “is who everyone uses and does well. In the small circle of wealth and the crooked world of college admissions, he was” that “guy. When someone is good at what they do” word "spreads… And fast.
"Does anyone think that students are withdrawing their application to the institutions in the news?
Of course not (assuming you are talking about the students whose parents cheated). Shameless parents probably think they can still get away with it. A few lawyers, a high-priced publicist and a few more bribes and they’ll be in the clear.
@SJ2727
You obviously have not watched a ping pong game, please do watch one if you can. It. Is. Super. Exciting! So are badminton games! And both games have the added advantages of not causing brain damages (while making the kids playing them more agile!)
I actually find football and baseball to be very boring and rather pointless. That, is of course totally a different topic. 
Question…were all the schools (colleges) involved private?
UT Austin and UCLA @chb088
@ShanFerg3 “Thank you! I’m happy that you posted this. I agree that this thread is permeated by sour grapes, IMO. The vitriol espoused here just shows how invested people are in having their progeny matriculate at these elite universities.”
Amen!
“No offense to various athletes, but you’re probably never going to get the same kind of excited large spectatorship watching table tennis or judo as basketball or football.”
So how do you explain the exceptional presence of fencing, sailing and field hockey on elite campuses? Those sports don’t draw excited football- or basketball-sized crowds either, and yet here we are talking about “side doors” invented by scammers who abuse these slots reserved for “White people sports” to disproportionately benefit one slice of the population. If there were slots for elite table tennis or judo, perhaps the evil side doors would benefit a different population. But that’s not where we are today.
I don’t think certain sports that being abused in this scandal are white (only) sports now (lacrosse, fencing, crew, sailing, …), they are upper-middle class sports. I am waiting to hear fake athletes in golf/tennis uncovered from elite colleges soon
True. And this is what makes them revenue sports. If the people playing the bills insist on something, you try to give it to them. Why the alumni feel this way is another matter.
I can’t get through this whole thread before commenting - I’m up to about page 60, I think! - so I apologize if my comment is a retread. One thing that occurred to me in relation to this whole situation is that many parents and students realistically see no other option for high school graduates than college (and then on top of that, there is the whole kerfuffle about what kind of college it should be). The reality is that most 18-year-olds, whatever their background, are not particularly academically inclined (nor, in the present day, have most received a solid secondary , but that’s another issue). This includes many who, whether by their own best efforts or by hook or by crook, have achieved solid high school records and standardized test scores. That doesn’t mean they won’t benefit from a college education - of course most do - but they probably wouldn’t seek it out unless the prevailing culture told them they had to. They are competing with the naturally academic kids - the ones who just have to learn and who do so no matter what their circumstances. There are far too few spots at the few colleges that in the public mind are considered to be both best for academics and of highest status. The academically minded applicants think they should have the spots because of their desire to learn and their ability to take advantage of the education (these characteristics often coexist with but are not equivalent to high SAT scores, folks), and the people with status and money think they are entitled to them because these institutions have historically kept themselves alive by catering to status and money. (Plus the people who think grades and scores are everything think they deserve spots on the basis of their shiny numbers 
.)
My point is that one big problem is the lack of other respectable or even high-prestige options for high school graduates who aren’t well suited for college or aren’t quite ready to take advantage of it and, to a lesser extent, the difficulty of getting that education later for those who would benefit from it after gaining some maturity. It feels as though there is only the one track and the one chance to get it right, and this causes an edge of desperation to invade the college application process (and sometimes take it over entirely, as evinced by this latest scandal…and a multitude of posts on CC).
I’m not going to throw stones. When my son applied to Harvard, my wife and I hired best local college-assistance firm to review his application. It wasn’t enough. He didn’t get in.
Fortunately, we had never heard of Mr. Singer, the ringleader of the scandal. We had missed his celebrity endorsements and his well-read books. An we don’t run in the circles of those caught up in this scandal where word-of-mouth would have spread news of his skills. But, if we had heard of him and if his services were within our budget, would we have signed up? Probably. At least to the point where we didn’t cross any lines that we thought were illegal. Donating to schools, athletic programs, non-profit foundations, etc. would not have stood out to us as being illegal.
The indictment makes great reading, but not all of it sounds criminal. Some of the parents were only guilty of writing checks to Mr. Singer and his beneficiaries. I have written a number of checks to the schools that my son applied to, and I’ve never thought that writing checks could be wrong.
Mr. Singer was a con man. The coaches who he bribed were wrong. The stand-in test takers were wrong. Those parents who gave cash payments must have known that they were wrong.
There but for the grace of God go I.
Of course the students should be allowed to apply to colleges where they’re truly competitive for admission. But they shouldn’t be allowed to keep spots that parents bought for them, or degrees that were obtained due to fraud. I don’t think it matters who committed the fraud.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please stay on topic and keep in mind that the Terms of Service apply in this thread, also. I deleted several posts. This thread is on the verge of being closed because we are getting so many reports about it. Moderators don’t have time to read every post on such a long, fast-moving thread.
@oldandwise Did you read the indictment docs—the 200 page one on all the parents who were indicted? It wasn’t about donations to athletic programs to curry favor. It’s blatant illegal activity and fraud. Singer also had clients who used his non-illegal services. The ones charged are those who wanted a guarantee of entry. They definitely knew it was illegal. They are sweating about getting caught in the wiretaps.
If a parent paid off someone and a child got in and has maintained appropriate grades, I don’t think the child should be kicked out of school. This is only in the cases that it’s proven the kid didn’t know.
Hanna,
An expanded version of this would make a great op-ed in a major newspaper.
I was struck by someone upthread who made the connection between helicopter, lawnmower and the cheating parents – something about being on the “spectrum.” Ouch, that hurt. But I think it stung because there is a trace of truth. Raising kids is hard. Getting them to grow up proper is hard. Most of us don’t resort to cheating to get underperformers a boost, and of course reading your kids’ emails is not the same as hiring a test proctor to correct his ACT answers.
However, I’m guilty of contributing to espousing the idea that a particular brand of school is superior. I’m guilty of promoting the game that created these rules that tempt the unscrupulous.
Earlier, I compared the $15,000 Felicity Huffman paid Singer to alter test scores to the price of a Birkin bag. Aren’t we all guilty of perpetuating the belief that the Birkin bag does more for you than the $20 bag anyone can buy at Target?
If you are mentally competent you should know what’s happening in your admissions process.
Most children would never agree to compromise their integrity if some evil or greed hijacked parents minds.
So moving forward a bit- what should happen to the currently enrolled students who may be found to
have cheated their way in via Singer and his compadres? If the student did not know (conjecturing here) shroud they get the boot if they are academically satisfactory?