@emilybee Northeastern’s coaches weren’t ensnared in this scandal, but someone allegedly paid a quarter of a million dollars to get their kid in. Boggles the mind on oh, so many levels.
@thumper1 I agree so completely. I feel for these kids, whose real lives were so undervalued by their own parents that they had to commit fraud to make them acceptable. There are literally hundreds of schools who accept kids with lower test scores and/or GPA - especially full pay kids. Why couldn’t they be happy with these kids’ real achievements. The rest of us manage to do that just fine.
I am also really angry at the prevalence of fake accommodations being handed out. We wonder why lower income kids can’t get the high scores of the wealthy? Well, on top of all the support, tutoring, enrichment and all that, they also have all that extra time. Meanwhile, how many kids who actually have legitimate learning disabilities can’t get the help they need because their parents can’t afford the testing or don’t know how to fight the system?
The best description I have heard is: “These people are so poor that all they have is money.”
What about the high schools these kids attended? Wouldn’t they know something was up?
I was disappointed to see UT listed.
Some schools have an honor code and would probably look at this as a violation. My daughter had to sign the honor code document when she started college. Seems if you didn’t get into college by honest means that you could be expelled because of breach of contract.
Side note: Just saw a commercial for Jimmy Kimmel tonight. His guest is Bob Saget. How’s that for timing?
(I doubt they will talk about it, but a little awkward cause you know if it was taped today that everyone is thinking about his relationship - if any - with Aunt Becky now and what just happened.)
Seems USC is well sought after by the wealthy. You’d think they’d be higher in the rankings!!
I know there are folks here who disagree, but IMO, the corruption occurred in part because there is an incentives problem here. Schools are giving non-revenue sports coaches the power over (valuable) admissions slots. But evidently these coaches aren’t under pressure to win enough to put those slots to good use. Heck, I’m not even sure the selling of admissions slots would be illegal if it wasn’t for mail and wire fraud and tax evasion (so if a parent met a coach in person and handed over gifts of cash, that might not even be illegal). And schools legally accept bribes for spots (donations; which may not even have to be that high).
But schools probably don’t want their coaches selling admit slots even if it wasn’t illegal. So why not deemphasize non-revenue sports? Still have sports clubs but make them club-level (like in the UK, the rest of Europe, Canada, Japan; pretty much everywhere outside the US). No admissions hook or scholarships except for revenue sports.
@Nocreativity1 I think what is more accurate is that the vast majority of 99%tile test scoring, straight A, extracurricular activities, sports captain kids are NOT getting into those super elite schools.
The Universities themselves deserve a lot of blame encouraging kids to apply who have no chance. The opacity in the admissions process breeds this type of activity. Stanford is no longer releasing EA numbers (more opacity). The schools should just come out and give ranges for how many kids apply/are considered for various categories of student and admit they give huge advantages to URM, recruited athlete, mega donor and let the chips fall. Them pretending it’s all holistic is B.S. and really should just disclose how many students apply for each category available and what those stats are. the unhooked white/asian kid without national recognition honors is wasting time applying to the super elite schools without a 34+ACT, yet these schools do nothing to discourage this
I don’t see how it could be an honor offense to be the beneficiary of a criminal scheme, if you didn’t know about it. If I were running a college, I would still not give these students a diploma, but I wouldn’t expel them either. I’d facilitate a transfer to the level of school the student would have honestly qualified for.
If the kid knew, though, I’d expel them.
@mrminsky Those disabilities are most definitely NOT a joke if your the parent of an LD child.
You have no idea what the struggle is. If you child can’t walk the disability is for all to see and the world builds ramps. If you child is LD it’s invisible and the barriers go up, as people claim it’s fake.
“Meanwhile, how many kids who actually have legitimate learning disabilities can’t get the help they need because their parents can’t afford the testing or don’t know how to fight the system?”
This is really the issue.
I think most of the accommodations granted are quite legit. But to deter fraud, the proof requirements to get an accommodation are pretty high. Not from the HS for classwork and school tests, but from the national testing services.
So there are tons of kids who merit an accommodation who don’t get them. Because the parents don’t have the time/knowledge/resources needed to get one.
If you really want your kid to get SAT/ACT test accommodations, you need to start documenting the LD in middle school. Absent total fraud (like you have in this case) it isn’t something you can accomplish starting in jr/sr year.
Like with everything else, having more parental and financial resources is a help.
DS attended a math competition recently and we had dinner afterwards with the parents of a kid that finished in third place in the highest level competition that day, Time was an issue in this test. The parents indicated they were in the process of getting accomodations for their son for future SAT/AP exams.
For the kid to place third in this test, he handles time pretty well…
@yellowgranite56, USC has already climbed a lot in the rankings (in part because they heavily game it).
It’s wasn’t all that long ago that everyone knew USC as the U of Spoiled Children and it was known as a school for rich kids who couldn’t get admitted in to a UC.
@yellowgranite56 While USC may not be in the top 10 nationally, it’s one of the top schools in the West with superb connections, a huge budget, and a growing international reputation. It is very much a “bragged about” school.
Why no one is mentioning all these private schools who inflate students grade and they have a direct line to Elite college admission counselors. FBI should look into private school start with H in Bronx.
@basil1, see response #419
Maybe the kid is seriously dyslexic,
@LisaNCState: Because grade inflation isn’t a crime. What would the police charge them with?