@“Cardinal Fang”
If you’re referencing Loughlin’s daughter, her words speak for themselves. No one has stated that she was involved in her parent’s scamming, just that she seemed to have no real interest in a college education, just the USC party scene. After detailing how she would be missing the first week of school to be in Fiji and the vast amount of traveling she would be doing her first year, she literally said “I don’t know how much of school I’m going to attend…but I do want the experience of game days and partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lveMkZc-NRE starting around 5:15 (she also has paid ads on her instagram that capitalize on her “student” status)
Bringing attention to this is simply stating facts and a fair critique, especially when one considers that a kid who actually may have wanted a USC education has been harmed by this family and it’s selfish desires and illegal actions.
Along those lines, I also disagree with the sentiment that these kids are victims of some sort of abusive wealthy households. Some of it is simply status seeking, some of it is entitlement.
I wonder how Macy avoided indictment while Loughlin’s husband did not, and it seems like some of the other names on the official indictment list are couples (just judging by last name/identical charges/charging district). Maybe he just knew and Huffman handled all the legwork? Is it a case of joint bank accounts on the bribery payments or what for the couples charged? I can’t wait for more details to be revealed.
Why would parents with plutocrat level wealth want to cheat if it costs “only” $250k to buy their kids a seat in “the accepted way that is not considered cheating”?
@ucbalumnus : Because the wealthy parents didn’t know about development offices at colleges & universities. Also, because they wanted a guarantee of admission. (I believe that the bulk of many of the payments were made after the fact in return for admission = a specific quid pro quo. Donations to a university through a development office benefit the entire educational institution & should not come with any guarantees–if done correctly.)
Would love to see the Feds go through the admissions records of every top 100 school and pull the files for every athletic recruit who never joined the team for which they were “recruited.”
Some of the kids knew and some didn’t. There’s an example in the charging documents of a parent and child chatting with the ringleader about how they just cheated and got away with it.
As for why would the parents do it if they were rich enough to do it through donations: Donations aren’t always guarantees, and this scheme (especially the fake sports recruiting) was presented as a guarantee. Also, it was presented as cheaper than doing it through development. The ringleader talked about getting in through the front door (actual merit) or the back door (high hundreds of thousands or millions in donations), and said his way was the side door.
@ucbalumnus They never show up for practice. They withdraw from the sport on the first day of class, but since they’ve already matriculated, they get to stay at the school. Full document located on CNN
Wouldn’t fake athletes be exposed in an obvious manner at the first practice?
No, just email the coach the day before the first practice that you’re “injured”. Will get back to you when I’m “better”. Up until today that was the CYA for both the coach and the kid.
@airway1 Yeah. That happens all the time in real life. Flat out rejections magically become acceptances. Not.
The concept that these mental midgets, all conspired to keep their student out of the loop just stretches credibility. At least based on my experiences of student involvement in the process and the admissions teams on the other side. There had to be evidence to support sports activities and or score jumps. Especially if the grades and narrative didn’t track.
Does that mean it’s a student problem. No the parents and scammers built this problem. But what to do with the current students who participated in the charade. As this was found out about other test cheaters in some recent cases, I think they were are asked to leave or transferred. Don’t fully recall. And not sure that’s the right remedy in any case.
@STEM2017 : The price at one Ivy League school was $10,000, an ED application, and–to a much lesser extent–attendance at that school’s summer program for high school juniors & seniors.
@ucbalumnus hypothetically, some might not have understood they were recruited and so never even showed up for practice. If someone they trusted (parent) and even a coach told them that was a mix up but the admission was real, they might have believed it. Or at least wanted to enough not to ask questions.
Additionally, some of them might have been narcissistic enough to think someone saw them play tennis at a country club and offered them admission based on that. Those kids might go to a few practices and then realize they are in over their heads. If the coach tells them it’s no problem, they can quit the team then perhaps they wouldn’t have wondered more about it.
Obviously some would have known on at least some level.
@Publisher I’m talking about going the “legit development” route. If you are rich and want your kid to attend an Ivy because of your donation, it better be 7 figures.
As the parent of a child with an IEP who really does have learning disabilities requiring extra time on SAT/ACT exams, this particular disclosure makes me so mad!!
“Singer’s activities included paying people to take tests for students or correcting their answers afterward. Singer would advise parents to get their children diagnosed with learning disabilities so that could have extra time to take standardized tests, including the SAT and ACT, and they could take them alone, with proctors Singer had bribed.”