Maybe I am mean but I don’t feel sorry for the kids…although I suppose a few of them were totally out of the loop.
If they are recruited for a sport that they either do not play, or don’t play well…wouldn’t they be confused? Don’t they ask questions? Talk to friends? Ask how this happened given that this sport was not on their application and they never had any contact with coaches? Wouldn’t they think that the school made a mistake?
And …don’t these kids ask about suddenly getting extra time for testing? They don’t question how their score possibly jumped 10 points? They don’t question why they are flying to a distant testing center instead of taking the test at a local school?
Again, I do feel bad for any innocent kids here…if there are any.
However, while the colleges may continue to accept bribes (donations / development), they do not want their agents (athletic coaches, admissions officers) to accept bribes that the college receives no benefit from.
@menloparkmom I know what you are saying but I see it differently. You can not fill out that app as a parent or consultant without your child at least sitting next to you. There is too much inside school knowledge, teachers, subjects, names and activities, results - a parent not going to school can not know all of it. Now let’s assume that the parents were able to do all that without the student. The student might not have committed a crime but they submitted a false application (the student signs that he/she filled out the app) and can now be expelled from that school because they did not fill out their own application. This will hopefully all be discussed and discovered,
He’s a con man. He got introduced to people through his network, he chatted them up, he would essentially send out feelers in his conversation to identify who might be receptive, depending on the reaction to the hints or comments he dropped. Probably pretty much the same as any other type of corruption.
@ShanFerg3 Two girls from my kids’ school are both at Yale for T&F. Both are outstanding in their sport and both were full IB graduates ranking in the top 5% of the class or better. Even if they weren’t outstanding in their sport, I would not have been surprised to see them matriculate to an Ivy.
PSAT scores don’t correspond exactly to SAT scores, but a jump of that magnitude usually indicates cheating or some factor artificially lowered the PSAT scores(ex. took the test sick or hungover).
I expect that admissions directors and athletic directors are going to be sitting down and making lists: " a) who received an admissions boost from athletics over the last 4 years? b) Who never made the team/dropped the sport? Can we confirm their athletic qualifications, and were those qualifications in line with the other students who received admissions preference for those sports?" I suspect that anybody on list a) and b) whose athletic qualifications can’t be confirmed, or had insufficient skills/talent (a 2 star rated recruit who never played when every other team member had a 5 star ranking) will find themselves quietly told to withdraw.
It may not be the popular opinion, but I do feel bad for Loughlin’s kids. It is so obvious that the parents pushed this - the one girl in her vlog states over and over that she’s not interested in school. And regardless of this situation, the threats and cyber bullying are way out of line. Smart decision not to return to school. Their folks really messed it up for them.
The evening news just aired a profuse and heart felt apology from the guy who took the ACT test for one of the students. I am sure that he is very, very sorry…that he got caught and will likely face charges.
@gallentjill He wanted to be able to tell their friends that his kids are going to a top school. This whole scandal was based more on social perception than anything else. Obviously the kids would have liked ASU better since they wanted to party (I believe Olivia Jade even said exactly that in a video).
There are students who do have very significant score increases from the PSAT to their SAT. I live with one and he didn’t cheat, or have any kinds of accommodations. He DID prep for the SAT second time which he did not do,for,the PSAT or SAT first time. This does happen honestly.
And there are lots of honest people who use college consultants for that kids. That is something that happens too. There is nothing wrong with this.
There are kids who do need accommodations on the standardized tests. That is also something that happens (my opinion is the tests are too long for most students…but that’s another thread).
And lastly, there are athletes who are academically excellent, and athletes who aren’t who still do well on college. That happens too.
Unless someone else was ghostwriting these applications, setting up ghost email accounts, and ghost writing all responses from the colleges and coaches, it seems to me the kids would know.
And anyway…if someone else was handling all their college admission “stuff”, they should have known that that as “off” too.
Lots of unanswered questions.
But there really are honest folks who have increased standardized test scores, and use college consultants.