@calmom
Yes, power and money often goes hand-in-hand, and I think America is a lot more aristocratic than we like to admit.
An article in the Daily Mail, quoting the prosecutor of Singer, says that Singer would lie about a student’s ethnicity in order to take advantage of affirmative action. It didn’t say if this was part of his regular admissions advising or part of the bribery.
@katliamom – “most popular?” (re Harvard Westlake) Or where a lot of kids who were aiming for Harvard, Yale, or Stanford but didn’t make the cut ended up? I don’t doubt that USC may be on track to becoming the Stanford of Southern Cal… it’s just that it’s not there yet. When a school is filled with kids applying to mega-selectives with 5% admit rates – then a pretty darn good local private with a 17% admit rate makes for a good backup.
We see this every year in the results threads. It feels like a massacre at the Ivy level… but a good chunk of those high stat kids have solid admits to schools with admit rates in the 15%-25% percent range. (Reaches for many kids, but solid matches for the kids with the high end stats).
@privatebanker yes I agree with you they aren’t the feeder to the extent parents expect anymore when their children get accepted to this schools. At the very top of these Prep Schools such as the two you named over 60% of their graduates aren’t going to matriculate at any of the Ivies + MIT + Stanford. That’s a major disappointment when you have been paying 50k a year. Some since kindergarten.
@TatinG I kind of want to see the doctored photos of those cases out of morbid curiosity.
@calmom, fair point. USC became the de-factor most popular as that’s where the majority got in. But that’s still a large percentage of a single graduating class (a couple hundred people, I’d guess) of an elite prep school.
What stuns me much more than people bribing officials to get their kids into USC is people bribing officials to get their kids into Chapman and Northeastern! (And I have nothing against these schools - daughter did her undergrad at Northeastern.) They’re no Stanford or Yale!
It makes sense if you look at it as the parents wanting it to be a sure thing. That bribe made it 100% in. No uncertainty. Even if the school was not tippy-top.
I’ve seen the doctored photos, and they’re pathetic. It’s so obvious.
@epiphany You have tell us more. Is there a secret link you can dm me. Enquiring minds need to know!
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@katliamom (re Chapman & Northeastern) Agreed – and it’s also hard for me to shake the perception of Northeastern as a safety – since it was one of my daughter’s identified safeties – D was a strong student but had a 27 ACT. So “safety” was harder to come by. And yes, we perceived Northeastern positively — we had bought into the whole idea of a school only being a “safety” if the student actually wanted to attend. I realize that Northeastern has changed dramatically since then… but still hard for me to see it as much of a motivator for parental bribing and cheating.
@calmom Two students on an elite school thread waiting that upcoming decision are shaking their heads at the two NEU rejections this week. Dumbfounded and concerned, they were not guided by current selectivity standards. Old viewpoints die hard.
Northeastern might appear less selective because it accepts over fourteen thousand applicants in a given year. This seems to allow ample space for fully qualified applicants who submit their applications in a conventional manner.
The two kids mentioned are near elite level students, what do you mean by conventional manner?
My comment about Northeastern as a safety for my daughter goes back a dozen years. She also got into U Chicago that year— along with 35% of all other Chicago applicants – so things do change But Northeastern still takes about 27% of applicants with a median SAT of 1390, so admissions should be fairly predictable for those with stats in the upper end of its range. Obviously, my daughter’s 27 ACT wouldn’t cut it (but ACT scoring has changed as well) --but I’d still find it a surprising if a student with top quartile stats got outright rejected. I’d assume Northeastern does some yield protection as well, so that sometimes can account for unexpected decisions with kids who seem over-qualified.
@calmom I think you are correct regarding yield protection. Still 27 percent means 73 get an R. And some have to be qualified and heartbroken. No safety anymore. Tough out there.
“conventional manner” == parents do not pay bribes.
The 17% admit rate for USC was from two years ago. Last year it was 12.9% and this year is projected to be around 10%. IMO, no one should view a school with a 10% acceptance rate as a backup or safety school.
I’m too far outside the details of this case to know much about particular students, @privatebanker. However, by conventional manner I meant in terms of an application that would be evaluated fairly based on grades, course selection, recommendations, standardized scoring, extracurricular activities and other accomplishments.
@merc81 Thx. One always hopes it’s that’ transparent snd straightforward. I’m having my doubts.