@BunsenBurner :)) yup, same here!
I wonder what the employers of the kids who got in this way and already graduated are thinking.
Ditto. While attending grad school, I was a (young) dorm parent at a boarding prep school and sometimes proctored SAT tests located on campus, but I’m too dumb to figure out how this would work without being caught. Apparently, so were they. 
I did get a kick out of a couple of parents with students from other schools who complained to the powers-that-be about why a *‘kid’ *was allowed to proctor their DC’s test. I was 21-22 at the time, but I don’t think I looked that young.
Also it seems like the British and Canadian systems of accepting students for higher education might be more fair. Get the GPA and test scores and you have a better chance of getting in.
Perhaps the Oxbridge system of qualifying exams for admissions along with interviews might be something that Top 20 schools should implement, although the logistics would be daunting and people would still complain. That system might weed out students who would otherwise be accepted based off SES/URM or developmental admits, although major universities will still need the developmental admits to fund their pet projects.
Maybe the good that come out of this is that grades/standardized test scores might get more emphasis to at least try to level out the admissions playing field. Or at least colleges will try to do a better job as educational institutions and not as giant money makers beholden to a few with so-called deep pockets. As if that will ever happen.
wrongdoing also done by kids. You would know if you know how to crew or sail or whatever.
@LongRangePlan the coaches are involved. For yale Wsoccer the coach directly got a 400K check. The coaches don’t care if they burn a slot or two on someone who doesn’t show up.
I see that some folks are pointing the finger at holistic admissions, but this “side door” was broken in through bribery and fraud on three specific and measurable parameters. 1- SAT/ACT score, 2- High level performance on a specific sport, 3- Coursework (they also had impersonators taking courses for kids).
@longrangeplan the coaches got bribes… they don’t care the kids didn’t play
In theory, they could have reported it under “other income” (line 21 on the 2018 Form 1040 Schedule 1; there was a line for that on previous Form 1040 as well) and paid income tax on it. But it is quite likely that many who made shady or illegal income did not report and pay income tax on it.
@hamuttle.
Who determines the top 20?
And is it only unis or lacs too.
Some of the problem is the absolute depth and breadth of wonderful schools in US that we all take for granted.
Canada has less people than many states. It’s easier to match. And limited number of schools.
UK system might work. But there is Cambridge and Oxford. And everyone else.
Of course many other great schools in the UK, but University is not an assumed requirement in life.
Polys and other educational paths are respected.
USA is big and thousands of students from elsewhere want to come as well. It wouldn’t be easy to implement.
And everyone can drive to interviews in Uk that live in the country. A lot tougher on our scale and there is a lot of costs.
Former CEO from 2014 to 2016, who retired in 11/2017, according to https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20190312/FREE/190319981/former-pimco-ceo-charged-in-college-admissions-bribery-scheme .
Worthy people who were rejected from USC the year that Lori Loughlin’s daughter got IN might be thinking “she took my spot.”
However, that involves tracking at middle school age… seems like parents with money can purchase quite a bit of influence at that stage, with less scrutiny than during the college admissions process.
If interested, you can find insights through certain cases. For example, the extensively reported on Harvard matriculant who gained admission through a fabrication of his credentials performed credibly in classes in which it appears he was evaluated on his own work. In a less well-known case at Yale, a student produced similar results.
no politics on this thread please- it’s already an ugly issue
"Worthy people who were rejected from USC the year that Lori Loughlin’s daughter got IN might be thinking “she took my spot.” "
They can’t all be right, but one of them is. We’ll never know who.
The “top” universities in the UK and Canada are relatively large compared to the populations of those countries, so that ordinary academic criteria are sufficient to differentiate applicants, unlike in the US, where the “top” universities are small relative to the US population, which leads to the issue of having more applicants at the ceiling of ordinary academic criteria measures than they can admit.
The coaches were compromised. They took bribes from the “consultant” and effectively “sold” one of their athletic admissions slots. The SAT cheating was needed to get the candidates up into the range where they were acceptable athletic admits. I’m not sure what they did if the student didn’t have half-decent grades.
The issue is whether the school properly followed the process to ascertain whether the coach’s list of his candidates had any unusual people on it who weren’t truly high level athletes.
I’m aware of instances where I think a coach put a kid on his admit list when he didn’t really feel he was a truly top recruit, but the kid’s academics were more than ok, and there was either an older sibling who had done a lot for the program, or a parent/grandparent who had given much support to the program over the years. Admissions wouldn’t really have a good way to check this, and probably doesn’t care much about it happening once in a while. But a coach who is selling the slot to a buyer who is then fraudulently goosing his scores to qualify academically is another thing entirely.
I just wonder if private secondary schools, who publicize the average ACT/SAT scores of their graduates. I think they have psychological testing on site and guidance counselors who want to make their graduates score the best.
Why wouldn’t they be incentivized to give kids extended time on standardized tests? It helps their bottom line.
Expensive private secondary schools have tutoring on call, offer ACT/SAT test prep. Why is not a small leap for them to also find a way for their students to score better by finding them extended time? That wouldn’t be offered at public schools that have other priorities?
I know people say it’s hard to get extended time on the ACT, but I have to say that I find to hard not to believe that certain schools have found a way around it.
I don’t have any idea but I do know that certain schools are very protective of their average scores and therefore acceptances to colleges. And I would think that well connected parents would know which school gives more accommodations. Since we are talking about bribing coaches and other cheating schemes
I wonder if this indictment has anything to do with the bribing of players in division 1 basketball? When they went looking for players being paid to play, that this is the can of worms that was opened?