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Actresses, Business Leaders, and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in Massive College Admissions Scandal (npr.org)
Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people on Tuesday in a major college admission scandal that involved wealthy parents, including Hollywood celebrities and prominent business leaders, paying bribes to get their children into elite American universities. From a report: Federal officials have charged dozens of well-heeled parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, in what the Justice Department says was a multimillion-dollar scheme to cheat college admissions standards. The parents allegedly paid a consultant who then fabricated academic and athletic credentials and arranged bribes to help get their children into prestigious universities. "We're talking about deception and fraud -- fake test scores, fake credentials, fake photographs, bribed college officials," said Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Lelling said 33 parents "paid enormous sums" to ensure their children got into schools such as Stanford and Yale, sending money to entities controlled by a man named William Rick Singer in return for falsifying records and obtaining false scores on important tests such as the SAT and ACT. Describing how Singer worked to present his clients' children as elite athletes, Lelling said, "In many instances, Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports. Other times, Singer and his associates used stock photos that they pulled off the Internet -- sometimes Photoshopping the face of the child onto the picture of the athlete" and submitting it to desirable schools.
Lelling said 33 parents "paid enormous sums" to ensure their children got into schools such as Stanford and Yale, sending money to entities controlled by a man named William Rick Singer in return for falsifying records and obtaining false scores on important tests such as the SAT and ACT. Describing how Singer worked to present his clients' children as elite athletes, Lelling said, "In many instances, Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports. Other times, Singer and his associates used stock photos that they pulled off the Internet -- sometimes Photoshopping the face of the child onto the picture of the athlete" and submitting it to desirable schools.
It isn't what you know or how hard you work.
It's who you know, how much payola you're willing to give them and how much leverage that buys you.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Note that Trump's budget released yesterday calls for a cut in education funding. This affects the working class. The rich can afford private schools. The masses get dumber, the rich get more powerful. When will it end?
It's news when somebody does something about it.
It won't be news when Andrew Lelling's career ends.
He will be made an example of. 3, 2, 1...
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Of course this scheme was going to get busted! If there's one thing a racket hates, it's competition. It's a shame that these people didn't realize that they should have bribed the colleges directly, with gifts and endowments. That way it's up to the school to figure out how they can get your kid in the door, and it's all above board. This is basically the Ivy-League educational equivalent of trying to sneak candy into the movie theater.
What's the news thing here? I thought it was well known that connected people got their children in to "elite" educational institutions by donating a new library or something.
I guess the news is that they tried to avoid giving the college the money and instead tried to come up with a valid excuse reasons why their children might be accepted. But it seems like the crime is less bribing people to get into "elite" institutions and instead bribing the WRONG people.
I think the problem is these people simply are not wealthy enough for their kids to be accepted on that basis alone.
A bunch of specific people getting named, shamed, and arrested definitely makes it news instead of just something that people know happens.
They didn't bribe the "wrong" people, they bribed the "right" people who really did have the connections. Most of the people arrested already did it, successfully, before authorities busted the company selling the service.
It isn't like they accidentally hired a front company for the FBI.
Well, when they ask you to make up a fake disability for your child to have so they need extra time on the test, you do know something about what is being done. When you also have to make up a fake family event so that they can take their entrance exams in some specific facility, instead of their one close to you or at the school you're applying to, then you do know something fraudulent is happening.
And when you pay $500k for the above services, you really know a lot more about the service. Actual test prep doesn't involve lying to the school, and it doesn't cost $500k.
Or, if you pay $2.5M for your student to get listed as being on an athletic scholarship, you probably already know what college sports are, if your child is really on the team, and if they've dedicated enough of their life for that to make sense. If it involves photoshopping a picture of their face onto the body of an athlete, you obviously already know the sport isn't a big enough part of their life to be earning a scholarship.
I'm having trouble finding any accusations here where they might have thought it was something else. Plus, I mean, they got them talking about it on tape before making arrests; if there were innocent rubes who didn't know, they probably didn't even get charged.
Donating a building and getting special accommodation etc was an open secret.
At many schools it is not a secret. They are quite open about favoring donors. This makes sense, since the limit on a school's capacity is money, not the number of chairs in the classroom. So a donor pays for their own kid, while expanding opportunities for others. The cheaters did the opposite.
I was replying to the person blaming the GOP. All of the names are Hollywood elite. You know, the Left. And yes, the vast majority of today's wealthy are in fact leftist. Unless you believe the coasts and Silicon Valley are hotbeds of conservatism.
I think this is pretty much it. What we are seeing here is the 1% trying to scam their way in because they can't drop $10M+ like the 0.01% can. Unfortunately for them, nobody is amused, not the Universities, not the Elites, and certainly not the middle-class (or lower) who were counting on these spots being up for fair competition. As others have pointed out, one dumb rich kid's endowment can fund the education of dozens of talented students, but these bribes help nobody but the people they went to.
Without a strong economy backed by college educated kids you're not gonna get the return on investment you need.
Yeah, the economy is really going to suffer if Muffy can't afford her gender studies degree.
I don't think the ROI on this is quite as clear cut as you might think.
Exactly. The problem isn't that they cheated. Cheating is both acceptable and expected to the point it is ingrained into the elite admissions system. The problem is that this particular group cheated the wrong way. They cheaped out on their cheating, and in the world of wealth and privilege, that's the real problem.
How could anyone say that with a straight face?
They're professionals.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I graduated over 20 years ago from a state school. My parents weren't wealthy enough to buy my way into an Ivy League school. I turned out OK, but the fact is that my path could have been a whole lot easier if I had been able to even think about applying to places like this. Once you make it in, that club will never let you fail...the hard part is making it in.
People wonder why these places are $60K+ a year, and accept less than 5% of applicants. It's because getting into one of these schools is a one-way ticket to Easy Street. You get to hobnob with the rich and powerful, they might fund your business ideas, and if you're not an entrepreneur there's a whole class of high-paying jobs open to you too. I live near NYC and investment banks recruit exclusively from the Ivy League for their most prestigious associate positions. My kids are smart but they're not full-scholarship-to-Harvard smart, or athletic enough for a sports scholarship, and I can't pay millions to an admissions broker...so they'll have to suck it up and find a job like the rest of us do instead of having it handed to them.
I always thought wealthy parents just paid millions directly to the school to help build a building in order to secure admissions spots. Is it now so competitive that they have to go to a middleman with connections, and donations aren't enough? It's too bad...these rich parents' kids are taking spots that could otherwise go to someone who would actually use the education for something other than a stepping stone to McKinsey and Company and executive boards.