All these stories play the public for fools.
This is my favorite from the past cycle, URM from Las Vegas applied to 59 schools (!), and received a whopping $2.5 million in “scholarship offers.” Going to USC.
$2.5 million in scholarship offers go to one Las Vegas graduate (ktnv.com)
I think I’ve got about 15 similar stories just from this past year alone (the Google feed algorithm noticed my interest in college admissions).