I know college admissions offices from the inside -- schools basically sign off on scandal

[privatebanker]

@roethlisburger I’m not sure what you are talking about.

Disabilities are protected under law. You can not disqualify someone for that and especially for education. It’s a serious issue.

You can’t say, “oh, they got a really good score on their second test, let’s make sure they didn’t get that darn blind student test accommodation” despite being you know, being sight impaired.

Sorry your analogy isn’t apropos. Nonsense.

[austinmshauri]

As a former admissions officer and dean myself, I can speak to a student in a matter of a few minutes and be able to assess their authenticity, academic curiosity and integrity.

Nobody can speak to someone they just met and know, for certain, how authentic, curious, and honest they are. They can make assumptions, but assuming isn’t knowing.

And when it comes to reading and evaluating a student’s application, we are trained to read between the lines and ensure that the student is able to back up their intended major, choice of activities and application as a whole. It is hard to believe that no one in the admissions offices at these targeted colleges picked up on the inconsistencies in the applications at the center of this scandal.

Have they made the applications public? I thought the point of the scam was to make these students look like athletes and that meant doctoring the application as well as photos. How do we know there were “inconsistencies” for them to find?

[bluebayou]

Because it relates to the college admissions scandal & potential ways for defendants to present defenses in mitigation.

After all, isn’t that the point raised in the article which is the subject of this thread ?

Sorry, I missed the author’s discussion in the article about defenses and penalty mitigation…

[lykia99]

@Dave_Berry If that is the case, I really wonder how my kid got into Princeton! He had more than one B (I think he had 3 or so throughout high school) though I don’t know about any spelling errors in his essays. No hooks that I know of and he didn’t really play any sports. He was also accepted at Berkeley, Amherst, Bowdoin, UVA and a couple other places. Intriguingly, he was rejected by USC as well as Georgetown.

[PetraMC]

One “B” in an academic class senior year can be enough for an admissions officer to not recommend admission for a student without a “tag.” One typo in an essay. One set of check marks on a teacher recommendation form that lists the student as “excellent” but not “outstanding.”

This really doesn’t jibe at all with the Naviance data from my kids’ school, even adjusted for sports and legacy.

[mathmom]

It depends on the school. Some prep schools give out lots of B’s and the colleges know that the kids are more than capable of doing the work. My younger son got into U of Chicago with lot’s of B’s. (In Chemistry, three years of Latin and probably some of his English courses as well.) He was in the top 6% of his class though. We belong to what is usually rated a middling public high school in the NYC suburbs. My older son definitely had a B or B+ in freshman year English and got into top schools. He was in top 2% of the class. Our school doesn’t give out A’s like candy.

[Publisher]

@bluebayou: Then I do not think that you fully appreciate the author’s message. Not uncommon as folks from different disciplines & with different experiences derive various understandings. If you are able to witness or read about any of the trials or sentencing hearings, then you’ll appreciate the discussion about mitigation & defenses. ( The defendants are about to pay substantial sums of money to attorneys in hopes of receiving mitigated penalties & defenses based on just what the article discussed.)

[Trixy34]

This thread is a train wreck.