Actresses, Business Leaders, and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in Massive College Admissions Scandal (npr.org) 375
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.
Unacceptable (Score:5, Funny)
What ever happened to getting your kid into college the good old fashioned way? Donating enough money to get a building named after you and guaranteed admission to any descendants.
Re:Unacceptable (Score:5, Interesting)
What ever happened to getting your kid into college the good old fashioned way? Donating enough money to get a building named after you and guaranteed admission to any descendants.
According to TFA, most of these parents paid the consultant $250k to $450k. A donation that size is not going to get your kid admitted automatically. It would take millions.
But the moral/ethical/legal difference is that those millions would go to the university to help fund its operations and scholarships, rather than into the pocket of some slimebag consultant.
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Depends on the school and just how dumb the kid is.
Paying the full price for tuition will get most, only moderately dumb rich kids, accepted to most 'elite' schools. Less than useful if they only flunk out, but many liberal arts programs are just four year parties. Almost everybody at Harvard/Yale/Sanford gets a 4.0, the story is 'they're all that smart'...Bullshit all day long. The ones that didn't (e.g. Bush, Gore) just completely 'phoned it in' and got 'gentlemen's Bs'.
Re:Unacceptable (Score:5, Interesting)
Almost everybody at Harvard/Yale/Sanford gets a 4.0, the story is 'they're all that smart'...Bullshit all day long.
When I was in grad school, I met a few fellow grad students who did their undergrad at those 'elite' sorts of universities. They were smart, no doubt, but no more so than the rest of us public state school people. They just had nicer clothes, cars, and more expensive hobbies.
I hate that myth that the elite schools are for smarter people. They're for wealthier people's kids, so that when those kids become wealthy/inherit that wealth, the ruling class has some faux meritocratic justification for it's own position in society. And unfortunately, so many of us buy it hook, line, and sinker.
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Perhaps your grad school took the top students from state schools, and mediocre students from "elite" schools, so your peers be unrepresentative of all students from those schools. Naturally, a grad school (and/or department) would attract students of a similar quality, regardless of the qualities of the schools those various students came from.
I just went to Wikipedia and checked out where the last 8 US-born science Nobel Prize winners got their bachelors' degrees. It was Haverford, Princeton, Cornell, Cal
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USC is definitely a 'good school'.
Sure, USC is a decent school, but nobody is going to be impressed if your kid gets in, and it is not going to open doors like a degree from Stanford, Harvard, or Berkeley.
If my kid decides to go there, I won't be disappointed, but I certainly wouldn't pay an extra $250k to get them in. It is just a middle-of-the-pack university. USC's most famous alumni is O. J. Simpson.
Re:Unacceptable (Score:5, Interesting)
There is another important detail. Donating a building and getting special accommodation etc was an open secret. There was no "fraud" about it. Recall the issue with fraud is that the misinformation causes someone or some entity to act against their own interests. Legal definitions aside its about not eroding the trust in society. If I donate a few million to put up the "DarkOx Center for Information Science" with a nod and wink that DarkOx Jr will get accepted next year; the school has a choice they decide its worth accepting a possibly inferior candidate to get the building or they can refuse my donation.
In this case though the schools were getting nothing the consultants were pocketing the money and the schools in a lot of cases were being mislead. They were given faked test scores, faked photos of athletic achievements, told the students in question were going to play this or that sport (usually used to raise the public image of the school) when they had no intention and maybe no ability to do so. So it was pure fraud. The institutions were arguably harmed here, and the sleazy consultants made off with the cash. Also some of the bribes were funneled thru fake charities as well for what appears to be tax evasion.
Re:Unacceptable (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Re:Unacceptable (Score:4, Informative)
Give me $450K and I'll start my own business.
Pfft. Spoken like a poor. The whole point of going to these places is so you can make well connected friends who give you cushy fake consulting jobs or finance your political campaign. Its to ensure a steady stream of other peoples money into their pockets into the future.
Start a business, good grief businesses may fail and running a real one takes actual work.
A million or more [Re:Unacceptable] (Score:4, Informative)
What ever happened to getting your kid into college the good old fashioned way? Donating enough money to get a building named after you and guaranteed admission to any descendants.
According to TFA, most of these parents paid the consultant $250k to $450k.
...
Read the actual article [npr.org]. The people accepting the bribes got maybe 350 K to 450K. The people arranging the bribes got a lot more.
Exempli gratia:
"In another example, Lelling said former Yale women's soccer coach Rudy Meredith took $400,000 to designate a potential student as a recruit for the team — boosting the student's admission prospects — despite knowing that the student didn't play the sport competitively.Once the student was accepted to Yale, her relatives paid Singer approximately $1.2 million, including a $900,000 to one of KWF's charitable accounts, according to court documents."
Re:Unacceptable (Score:5, Informative)
At least this has the benefit of providing others a place to learn. I have no problem giving some asshat kid a free admission if he is allowing 500 other people to get an education on his dime at the same time.
The money isn't going to the schools. The parents are paying some middleman who is either paying SAT/ACT proctors to help cheat on exams, hire people to take the exams for them, or paying college coaches to designate the children as "recruits" who then get easier entry requirements or priority admission.
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At least this has the benefit of providing others a place to learn. I have no problem giving some asshat kid a free admission if he is allowing 500 other people to get an education on his dime at the same time.
No, it has the benefit of additional maintenance and upkeep in perpetuity.
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Re:Teachable moment for fraudsters. (Score:5, Informative)
Robert Zangrillo is a republican https://voterrecords.com/voter... [voterrecords.com] (I only googled the one as that's all I need to prove you wrong, try again).
Re: Teachable moment for fraudsters. (Score:5, Informative)
Can you find any Republicans in the group arrested today? Nope. All card-carrying Leftists.
Since the summary didn't list any names except the photogenic actresses, I'm not sure how you know if they were Republicans or Democrats. The actual article [npr.org] names names (scroll down to the bottom for the list), and they're mostly athletic coaches and rich businessmen. I don't know their politics, but in my experience, athletic coaches and rich businessmen both tend toward the right.
Re: Teachable moment for fraudsters. (Score:2, Interesting)
Because no Conservative or Republican was ever a famous actor that went into politics, say as Governor. I can barely name three off the top of my head...
Reagan, Schwarzenegger, Ventura...
If the Republicans had any candidates under fifty there might be more.
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Ventura?
If he was ever an R, he was a Minnesota R, which is a D anywhere else.
Re: Teachable moment for fraudsters. (Score:5, Informative)
2 out of 50 were "Hollywood elites".
Re: Teachable moment for fraudsters. (Score:5, Funny)
And yes, the vast majority of today's wealthy are in fact leftist.
HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!! Oh man, that was a good one.
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No, they weren't "all democrats".
Teaching those life lessons (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Teaching those life lessons (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, not exactly. These people were actually committing fraud by cheating on tests and bribing officials.
Take Jared Kushner; he was admitted to Harvard after his father pledged 2.5 million dollars in donations. But that's not so bad. Sure, it means he probably displaced a more academically qualified candidate. But *the practice* of preferential treatment of big donors has allowed Harvard to amass wealth the enables it to offer poorer but gifted students a leg up they wouldn't have been able to afford. Harvard waves tuition for students whose families make less than $65K, and allows families making between 65k and 150k to pay on a sliding scale from 0 to 10% of their income.
The people who were named for cheating displaced more qualified students too, but they contributed *nothing* to the system in return.
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bribery = payola
cheating on tests = hey johnny, here's the answers
It's all about leverage and how much it costs to get that leverage. The fact they were committing fraud somehow didn't cross their minds. I suspect plea deals to be the norm for all but the biggest defendants and they'll wish they'd saved the cash for the team of lawyers they'll need to represent them.
Re:Teaching those life lessons (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. Hiring someone from Harvard is hiring someone gifted OR connected OR rich or some combination. It's not bad to walk into any interview having the interviewer believe at least one of those is true.
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The rich are also going to buy their way into things. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
The Rich (Score:4, Insightful)
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Note that Trump's budget released yesterday calls for a cut in education funding. This affects the working class.
It's the faucet-like availability of government-backed loans and too-easy education money that is directly responsible for driving tuition prices through the roof in the first place. The "working class" can learn remedial algebra and gain the ability to write a complete English sentence finally taught to them at a very reasonably priced local community college just as easily as the rich kid can get it taught to her at an elite school her parents can afford. "The masses" are dumber because the culture is ro
Re:The Rich (Score:4, Interesting)
This is exactly right. Tuition increases and loan increases are totally a feedback mechanism. As soon as tuition goes up, loan amounts go up to match. As soon as more money is available, schools increase tuition.
The slop gets used as exactly as you describe -- what were once totally acceptable "dorm rooms" now need to be 2 bedroom condos. It would not surprise me at all if there were "dorms" on college campuses touting their in-room hot tubs.
Re:The Rich (Score:4, Informative)
This is exactly wrong. Reductions in per capita spending on higher education are responsible for increased tuition.
https://www.educationnext.org/higher-ed-lower-spending-as-states-cut-back-where-has-money-gone/
Mod Parent Up (Score:4, Informative)
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False [slashdot.org].
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Here you go [wikipedia.org]. Now find me a citation that does not place the working class in an income bracket below the middle class!
The study also found the same effect in farmers. Are farmers middle class or impoverished?
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The problem with that old saw, is that if it was just about easy loan dollars, more schools (public and private) would compete for those dollars, forcing prices back down. So you can toss that in the garbage bin of failed winger talking points, like DDT bans causing malaria or increases in the minimum wage leading to job losses
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Many years ago I went to what is now a top 5 university for college and followed it up by going to what is now a top 10 university for graduate school.
I can tell you the difference in education between the two was totally shocking. After what I did as an undergrad, getting a PhD at the lower ranked school was more about just spending the time to check all the boxes than any real work.
So I know there is a tremendous difference between just the top few schools. I can easily believe that after you get out of the top 10 or 20 universities, the differences are minimal, but at the top, even just a few spots in the rankings indicates a huge difference in quality of education.
Perhaps your sample size (two universities) was not adequate to draw meaningful conclusions.
Re:The Rich (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm, 12% of about $85B (Federal budget for education) cuts is about $$10.5B. Total spending on education at all levels is around $670B. SO, you're really worried about that 1.5% cut?
Especially given that Federal education dollars mostly fund the Department of Education, not, you know, actual education....
Yes, almost all education spending (nearly 90%) is done at State and Local levels. And the higher level of spending (with local at the bottom, then State, then Federal) you get, the more likely that the dollars so spent are spent on bureaucrats, rather than, you know, teachers....
Do note that what this is about is people cheating to get their kids into prestigious schools (suitable for the upper crust only - the riff-raff need not apply). If they really want to throw money away buying their way into the "upper crust" schools, let them go to town! It's not like someone going to college on a football scholarship isn't already dragging the system down a bit every year....
Yes, I am worried about a 1.5% cut (Score:3)
Not just education, a 10% cut to Medicare (Score:2)
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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?
The federal government's spending on primary education is a very small fraction of what state and local governments spend. However since it is 100% marginal income cash it is used as nothing less than a carrot approach to dictating national policy, "Common Core", "Race to the Top", "No Child Left Behind", etc. Schools would chase NONE of these programs if it weren't for the few extra % the Feds kick into their budgets. Are these programs that get endlessly griped about really affecting the working class a
I'm not surprised (Score:5, Interesting)
I am, however, disappointed. Angry, even. Irrationally so.
All my life I was taught to be good. To not steal, not cheat, to not lie. I live my life like that. I stay out of the way. I don't steal, I try not to cheat (my little cheats are leaving a tiny bit earlier, to get a jump on the other commuters, I have a heavy right foot so I tend to take off from lights like a scalded cat and go around corners like a cat on carpet, etc.) I have lied, and I feel bloody awful when I do. I have done bad things, and I feel truly awful.
These people don't, I guess? They just take what they want.
I always suspected that the cheaters are the ones that truly get ahead. The ones who make the big bank. (BIG bank, not get-by-and-put-some-away-for-a-rainy-day bank). They can't do it without cheating.
This just confirms it in a way that's visceral, palpable.
Think on that next time you see that what's driving that Ferrari 458 next to you is a bleached, tanned, perfect specimen and you, who has yearned for a prancing pony since childhood will likely never have one.. and if you do, it'll be a 50-year old 308. (Nothing wrong with that, but I hope you see my point. We have to earn it, they just walk in and buy one. The one who earned it will savor every tick of the valvetrain, every rrrp of the exhaust.. they who walked in and bought it will probably spill their latte all over the leather and worse, far worse.)
Once, I was leaving work, 2 jobs ago.. the wife of the CEO drove a RR Wraith, a car I'd love to just even look after, never you mind drive.. she cut to the right of all of us waiting on the left-turn light, dragged that beautiful yacht of a car all over wet concrete mud and slurry, then gunned it and went into traffic on a red light. And she gets away with it. Cunt. Her husband was no better, he drove a RR Phantom and was unable to park it without a 20-point turn.
Fuck the rich. I really do hope karma is a thing. Imagine being reincarnated from rich asshole to possum?
Re: (Score:2)
Italian and English trash is it's own punishment.
Your supposed to laugh at the fools, knowing how badly they are getting reamed.
Nothing more fun than outrunning someone in a car that cost less than your competitors last oil change. Rich fuckers generally can't drive. Ferraris especially are surprisingly SLOW.
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Ferraris especially are surprisingly SLOW.
Who cares, they make the most amazing noises. I don't mind slow, I love Miatas, had one for 10 years, very slow. And very fun.
But it didn't make the noises.
Before a 308, I"ll have another 1-st gen Rx-7, tho. That shit stole my heart. I still miss mine, and it's been almost 30 years since I sold.
It's not about speed, but if I have to say that, then I know I'm talking to the wrong person. Sorry, that's just how I feel about it. So I guess I"m talking to the wrong person.
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You should get a six banger mustang. They make 'amazing engine noises'...With the stereo speakers, but you obviously don't care.
I'll take the LAST RX-7 myself.
Hell get a Leaf and change the noise to '2005 Ferrari F1'.
308s are just awful. You think that's an 'Amazing engine noise'? It's a weak dinky little V8.
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308s are just awful. You think that's an 'Amazing engine noise'? It's a weak dinky little V8.
308s are awful. Turn everything on, then turn on the hazards, and all the lights inside and out pulse (weak electrical). Fusebox fires. Fiberglass cam sprockets. The a/c is an afterthought, quite literally. Timing belts every 16k. I"m well familiar with the car. Still love it. The look, the sound, the way it drives, all of it.
But it's not a weak, dinky v8. It's a tiny little twincam (in the later cars), 3 liters. roughly 240 horses (guaranteed if fuel injected, open to debate if carburated).. and l
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You think 240 ponies isn't a weak V8? It's barely a decent turbo 4.
The very worst thing about Ferrari? No aftermarket, because only fools tune on collectors items. What does a clutch for that 308 cost? More than I paid to build a good old American V8 to double its factory power.
I've already got a car for 'looking at'. A 1960. I like to drive. Overpriced eurocars are, even under ideal conditions, A to A cars, same as my 1960. Because you just can't park them and not worry. Last time I left the '60 in th
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Yeah but, they're going to jail, and you're not.
The specific people in the story are not nearly as privileged as they were led to believe.
They don't let you out of prison on the weekend to drive your Ferrari.
Re:I'm not surprised (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah but, they're going to jail, and you're not.
They'll go to a country club prison, serve minimal time, and be out before the kid graduates.
Only the poor do Hard Time.
This won't change until the Rich also do Hard Time, and lots and lots of it.
Manafort much? I wish they'd given him 25, not 4. If I did that, I'd be in the clink for a long, long time, because I don't have his connections.
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Italian car fan here.
I've owned several Alfas (Spyder, GTV, GTV6, 164) Lancias (beta, and a real, honest to god 037) Abarth (the real Abarth, not what passes for them these days) a Maserati (Biturbo, don't hate, they were beautiful cars) and the occasional British car (TVR 2500, and a '71 MGB)
There is nothing like driving a car that was built by hand, by people who did it for the love. It's in every fibre of the car, every noise it makes, and in every car repair bill you get (1000$ for a pair of wipers/arms
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I think that is a bit jaded. There are definitely a lot of inter-generational aristocracy out there that have had everything handed to them. There are a lot criminals and cheats just as you say.
There are also a lot people who just won the genetic lottery and are really really smart, driven etc and high achievement comes easily to them. There are also guys and gals who had the big idea and took the risks to make it a reality. In short some people do earn it; but like you I suspect a lot more folks just h
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I am a bit jaded, youbetcha.
In short some people do earn it; but like you I suspect a lot more folks just have their hands in the cookie jar.
It's easy to spot those those cheated their way into it, usually they make it obvious.
Those who earned it? They may be the guy next to you in the slightly-rusted, quite-dented 1982 Mazda B2000 pickup, with the 10 dollar Casio on the wrist. They have my respect.
But the cheaters? Fuck 'em. *ptooie!*
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You get to pick your life, at least partly. If you are a lying, cheating, no good bastard who is rich (or poor)... there is a high chance you have no real friends, your wife is waiting for the divorce settlement, and even your kids think you are a piece of trash. These people usually pretend they are happy, all the while they are more alone than anybody on the planet.
I mean really... who is truly going to be friends with a piece of shit like that? They might fake it enough to get by in some groups, but they
Didn't go to the approved source (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but the schools charge so much for their guaranteed admission program. You can't really blame these folks seeking out a discount.
Whew, that was close! (Score:5, Funny)
I was about to pay several million dollars to pass my son off as the world's greatest collegiate hockey prospect (except he can't skate and is in his 40s) when I saw this Slashdot article. Now I've done something even better: I signed him up at the University Of American Samoa for a law degree! Go Land Crabs!
Thanks Slashdot!
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gap (Score:2)
College is THE way to get ahead no matter the cost (Score:2)
Look at all the student loans.
This is a surprise somehow?
It was an ambitious fraud ring (Score:2, Troll)
Nationwide at a number of colleges [battleswarmblog.com], though the FBI said that none of the colleges themselves knew of the scheme. Of course, it brings up a number of questions:
1. What good does it do to get your spawn into an elite college if they're not good enough and they'll just fail out?
2. Why not go the time-honored fraud route of just pretending your offspring is a minority?
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What good does it do to get your spawn into an elite college if they're not good enough and they'll just fail out?
It's actually quite challenging to fail out of an elite college. You really have to work at it. The school will also offer all sorts of tutoring and help if you're just not quite as smart.
The goal is to have the brand name on your resume. The "Degree" line on your resume is going to look the same if you got a 2.0 or a 4.0. Plus you're going to meet some really rich and/or smart people there, which will open a lot of doors for you.
Why not go the time-honored fraud route of just pretending your offspring is a minority?
Because there's plenty of other people combing over their family history.
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1. What good does it do to get your spawn into an elite college if they're not good enough and they'll just fail out?
Because they probably won't fail out. Do you really think its that much harder to get thru HBS than it is to get a MBA at say AZ State? It might be a little but probably not make or break for most folks. The better schools don't want to have lots of drops outs either, that looks bad too so they have fancy tutoring programs or its already be shown in some cases they just strait up resort to grade inflation. So if anything they might have less chance of failing out. Also consider there are probably fewer
Go Fake Athlete, GO! (Score:3)
Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports...sometimes Photoshopping the face of the child onto the picture of the athlete" and submitting it to desirable schools.
I can't believe parents were actually this stupid. If you're playing sports at the collegiate level, it's because you're actually fucking good at it. The world knows this.
Exactly how long did stupid celebrities think they were going to get away with pimping their fake elite athletes?
I wish this would have all blown up on a playing field somewhere. Would have made for great social media watching some spoiled little shit get called out and shown the door for going along with their parents idiotic ideas.
Re:Go Fake Athlete, GO! (Score:5, Informative)
Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports...sometimes Photoshopping the face of the child onto the picture of the athlete" and submitting it to desirable schools.
I can't believe parents were actually this stupid. If you're playing sports at the collegiate level, it's because you're actually fucking good at it. The world knows this.
Exactly how long did stupid celebrities think they were going to get away with pimping their fake elite athletes?
I wish this would have all blown up on a playing field somewhere. Would have made for great social media watching some spoiled little shit get called out and shown the door for going along with their parents idiotic ideas.
The coaches were in on it. The kids weren't actually getting recruited by the team, but the coach said the were to get them preferential admission.
Re:Go Fake Athlete, GO! (Score:5, Interesting)
... If you're playing sports at the collegiate level, it's because you're actually fucking good at it. The world knows this. Exactly how long did stupid celebrities think they were going to get away with pimping their fake elite athletes?
The coaches were in on it. The kids weren't actually getting recruited by the team, but the coach said the were to get them preferential admission.
Exactly. They weren't getting athletic scholarships, they were just getting an endorsement from the head coach that they were "prospects" for the team. That bumps them up the admission scale.
Once they're admitted, they don't have to join the team. Nobody will even know that they were labelled a prospect; that's all in the confidential admissions paperwork.
Talk about cheap parents (Score:3)
Mr. Burns: I see. Well, I- ...Oh, that reminds me, it is time for your annual contribution. How much should I give?
Male Admissions Officer: Well frankly, test scores like Larry's would merit a very generous donation. A score of 400 would require new football uniforms. 300 would require a new dormitory. And in Larry's case? We'd need an international airport.
Female Admissions Officer: Yale could use an international airport, Mr. Burns.
Mr. Burns: Are you mad?! I am not made of airports! Get out!
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To be fair, he spelled "Yale" with a six.
sonic waves this morning, scandals this afternoon (Score:2)
This morning sonic waves had mass, this afternoon scandals have mass.
Confusing world.
Athlete's what? (Score:2)
I figured that the parents would be smart enough to realize that the school you get into does not help your future career. They already have all these advantages, is going to Stanford really going to open more doors than being the child of someone of wealth or a star?
If they wanted too, they could get their kids the best teachers or coaches who could excel in either education or sports; to cheat like this? They set a horrible standard of privilege for their children to follow.
endowment (Score:2)
Wasn't this previously called "an endowment"? Why is it illegal now?
Comes Around Again (Score:3)
Proof you're paying for access (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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An Ivy League degree is not a one-way ticket to Easy Street. Investment banks only take Ivy Leaguers with extremely high grades, not any random Ivy Leaguer. Same with elite law schools. And once you're in the investment bank or law firm, you generally have to work extremely long hours. Similarly, if your Ivy League connections allow you to begin a tech startup, you're in the same position of all new businesses which usually require long hours for a chance at success.
The vast majority of Ivy Leaguers end up
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
It's news when somebody does something about it.
It's news because they weren't doing that; they were literally cheating: forging fake documents, fake test scores, fake athletic achievements.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Sums it up well.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a good summary and then the icing on top is that the bribes were done as charitable contributions. Not only did they attempt bribery they were defrauding the United States and state governments of tax revenues.
Re:This is news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)
The big lie they tell us is that getting in is a sign of merit, and using the connections facilitated by those universities to jump start your career also means you earned what you got. They market themselves as the apex of progressive enlightened intellectualism, but in reality, they act as the regulators of institutionalized classism and elitism. The issue in this case isn't that these people cheated. It is that they cheated the wrong way. There will be some faux outrage, then back to business as usual.
Oh, and this doozy of a quote from TFA:
"There will not be a separate admissions system for the wealthy," he added. "And there will not be a separate criminal justice system either."
Legacy admissions begs to differ. What a joke. How could anyone say that with a straight face?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How could anyone say that with a straight face?
They're professionals.
Depends on the University (Score:3)
Like I said elsewhere, tax the rich and fund the schools. Then I couldn't care less if they form phony elite schools. I care about my kid's education, not what some rich prick gets. And I don't care about "fair" as long as me and mine are taken care of (and being a lefty "me and mine" means the working class)
Re:This is news? (Score:4)
Getting the same GPA as Al Gore.
Straight 'gentleman's Bs' for both, no math or science to speak of for eather.
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Funny)
The drunk fool George W Bush attended both Yale and Harvard, proving your point.
Pfff. Those were my safety schools. I guess his dad didn't have enough juice to get him into Wharton.
Re: (Score:2)
The news is that they're doing it outside of approved channels. You're supposed to endow a chair or build a building or some such. And not hide behind a deceptive third party. (But the deception may be cheaper if you don't get caught.)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes it's news! These parents were cheating the system! They paid someone to fake some records and deliver a few individual bribes instead of engaging in the time honoured system of institutional bribery you describe.
How are elite universities supposed to maintain their campuses, endowments and football teams in the face of increasing cocaine costs when these upstarts are bribing admissions officers with thousands of dollars instead of the whole institution with tens of millions of dollars?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Madoff Redux (Score:4, Interesting)
Similarly, the salesperson here probably said something like, "I can get your kid into X University for Y grand. But I can't reveal our proprietary methods."
One person paid $6.5 million. They had to known it was a shady deal. $6.5 million would pay for a team of full time tutors to follow the student around all day for 4 years.
Re: (Score:3)
I can't wrap my head around thinking that $6.5m would be worth it to get your kid into a school. Most people would realize that that's more than a lifetime of earnings for 95% of the population or more.
If they set that up in a trust fund, that poor kid would have to live like a peasant, subsisting on only about $110,000/year (tax-free) to make sure that he doesn't run out of money by the time he's 90. That's twice the median household income. It puts them in the upper-middle-class without lifting a finger.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think that is the case with very many of these folks. The articles I've read thus far state that the parents knew this involved illegal stuff and sometimes even the kids themselves knew it. Some of the methods involved making up excuses to take SAT and ACT tests at specific sites where proctors that were taking bribes would facilitate the cheating, allowing others to correct answer sheets and or just take the test for the student.
Re:Madoff Redux (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
The correct response to this is to end tuition and just let anyone who passes their exams go to college. It would cost $80 billion a year. That's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the value of a well educated populace.
Yeah, OPM is always just a drop in the bucket.
Re:Hasn't anyone ever heard of a "Legacy"? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Gender studies degrees are cheap (Score:3)
That leaves hundreds of thousands of Nurses, Doctors, Accountants, Engineers, MBAs and Architects pu
Re: (Score:3)
No. _More_ stupid after a * studies degree.
There is a cost to spending 4 years in an incorrect echo chamber. They internalize nonsense.
Re: (Score:2)
Since when do The Powers That Be want to have a "well educated populace"?
During the cold war (Score:2)
That's why you don't ask them. Vote. Vote in your primary elections. Vote for left leaning candidates. Stop listening to mainstream media like CNN and MSNBC (both establishment outlets). We really are a democracy, but in order for that to work we've got to all agree that nobody gets left behind. Otherwise we split into classes and races and sub-groups and fight among ourselves while the wealthy take all our stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
. It would cost $80 billion a year. That's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the value of a well educated populace.
Our primary and secondary education systems should be meeting the objectives of having a well educated population. That is why we have them. If they are failing at that, we need to fix that problem.
The goal of universities really should be offering that something extra to the best of the best and advancing the state of the art in science/philosophy/art etc. The fact that I can't trust someone without BS knows basic algebra is the problem. They answer is not sending everyone to college.
Re: (Score:2)
$10,615 USA average for public school per student/year.
51 million students in public school in USA.
= $541 billion per year.
Remember, high school used to be optional (kind of still is) and before that it was not free. Progress made high school necessary and it became free; it also kept nations from dropping to 3rd world status.... In the future college is going to be needed as low education jobs continue to be outsourced to near slave labor or to mechanical slaves (aka robotnic.)