College Admissions Scandal
By ANASTASIA TCHERNIKOV
How far is too far for college admissions?
Recent college admission scandals involving actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, and others have arisen in the media. William ¨Rick¨ Singer, accused of receiving bribes in order to cheat on college entrance exams, also falsified athletic records for students to get into schools such as, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown.
One part of Singer’s scheme was to help students cheat on their SAT and ACT exams by accepting bribes in addition to the exam administrators accepting bribes so the administrators could take the test in the student’s place or replace their test with a more correct copy. The other part of the scheme was to bribe coaches and athletic officials to recommend students for scholarships and pasted their faces over photos of people playing sports; this included students who have not even played any sports beforehand. According to Jennifer Medina, of the New York Times, to cover this up, Singer told parents to donate to a fake charity, gaining about $25 million in total; more specifically, Holly Yan, journalist for CNN, details that parents paid $15,000 to $70,000 per test with the Los Angeles Times stating that parents paid $200,000 at least and up to $6.5 million for their children to get into specific colleges.
With all of these college admissions scams, people must see that some of the nation’s wealthiest and most privileged parents are taking away spots in colleges from real, hardworking students. Andrew E. Lelling, the United States attorney for the District of Massachusetts states that “The parents are the prime movers of this fraud,” and most of the students being cheated into elite schools are completely unaware of their parent’s illegal actions. This finally begs the question, how far is too far for college admissions?
The wealthy and well-connected people of the nation are at an unfair advantage to get their students to the top of their class with the money that fills their bank accounts. According to Susan Page and Deborah Barfield Berry, from a poll of over 1,000 people, 63 percent said that college admissions favor the rich and powerful, already putting the middle and lower class at a disadvantage.
They quote, 73-year old retired accountant from Washington, Hosie Ward: "It has been controlled by the dollars and controlled by the rich...I'm just happy that at least it's reported.” Right from the start, the wealthy people have an advantage, but bribing people to have their children get into elite schools simply goes way too far.
According to Richard Winton and Hannah Fry, US Attorney Andrew Lelling states, “The real victims in this case are the hardworking students” in this whole college admissions mess.
Sadly, with the wealthy continuing to be wealthy and abusing their power, there is not much that these hard working students and their parents can do. However, this scandal has brought light to the fact that the power has been abused by the rich for far too long.
Students of all ages have cheated, but never have they stolen the spot of another hard working student with money. Overall, the wealthy children may see their parent’s money as a barrier to entering the real world and will therefore be relying on that sum of money for their life, while the hard working people plan to be successful in life, but cannot when the chance to get what they really deserve is stolen from them.
Works Cited
Medina, Jennifer, et al. "Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in U.S. College Entry Fraud." New York Times, 12 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-cheating-scandal.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2019.
Page, Susan, and Deborah Barfield Berry. "Poll: Americans say even the legal breaks for college admission rig the system." USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 20 Mar. 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/20/poll-college-admissions-unfair-favor-wealthy/3212228002/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2019.
Winton, Richard, and Hannah Fry. "Wealthy parents in admissions scandal under intense pressure to make deals. Here's why." Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2019, www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-admissions-scandal-legal-analysis-20190320-story.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2019.
Yan, Holly. "What we know so far in the college admissions cheating scandal." CNN, Turner Broadcasting System, 19 Mar. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/what-we-know-college-admissions-cheating-scandal/index.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2019.