50 people arrested for nationwide college admission bribery scheme
16 replies, posted
https://apnews.com/2450688f9e67435c8590e59a1b0e5b47
Prosecutors said parents paid an admissions consultant from 2011 through last month to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes, to alter test scores and to have others take online classes to boost their children’s chances of getting into schools.
“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” Lelling said.
The racketeering conspiracy charges were brought against coaches at schools including Wake Forest, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles.
As if college wasn't pay to play enough already in the US. Now honest students are getting pushed out of line by rich cheaters. In the FBI conference the guy said in some cases the students didn't even know their parents were doing this. The kid would take the SAT/ACT and someone would change the answers to a good grade after the fact. In some other cases they would just have a professional test taker take the test for the kid.
Imagine nor giving a shit about showing your kid it's okay to flex your wealth to actively cheat. Not just give yourself an upper hand or head start, but to cheat the whole system. Or image your kid thinking they've worked their way into this prestigious college only to find out it was Daddy's money.
The FBI guy also said they would even sometimes Photoshop a kids face on an existing athlete/stock photo to help them get onto a team like some kind of athletic catfishing.
I never really got why being an "athlete" gave you privileged access to some universities. It should only be relevant if you're getting a sports-related degree.
The sad fact is that where there's a system, there are always going to be people who try to game it. And unless they get caught, they can often just get away with it after the fact, unless somebody proves at a later date they did indeed cheat. It's more a question of for them, why take the effort if this way's already present? especially if those kids happen to be dumb as bricks themselves.
I swear i think this affected my sister. She's such a hard worker and really really great at volleyball, but something just didnt seem right in the wake forest area.
Luckily my sister found a tier two college, but it was so stressful for her and had to tell her all the time that it's not her fault that she isnt getting any offers from colleges to play volleyball.
Exploiting an elite school to wear it as a falsified badge of prestige is pretty much the worst thing that can be done education wise ever. The only thing that is more messed up that I can think of is bribing people to artificially expell less rich students and essentially create academic fascism where the only people who are in the school are there because of money.
I shit you not, nearly half the people in my batch of 150 med students joined up, or rather, were bribed in, because of muh prestige that being a doctor supposedly provides. Most of them had literally no idea what they were doing, but were able to bribe passes each year anyway lmao.
Not always. My state school (Uconn) is spending twice the amount of money on sports as they're bringing in lol.
All while tuition goes up, professors have to pay for parking passes, and students otherwise get fucked financially.
And my sister, who is going to play volleyball for her college, still has to pay for school. I'm hoping she can get a full ride in the future, but my parents are going to feel some financial pain for now.
I really hate college so much, that even though I can get paid to go, i almost don't want to entertain them because i just dont support the US system of education.
It feels like exploitation and now its hurting my family. Like, no wonder there's a problem with education in the United states. It's mainly for the wealthy and here is proof that having tons of money can get you a free pass, regardless of your academic standing. Disgusting.
I guess they didn't realize you can just buy a building or something and get admission preferences instead.
This is generational wealth inequality at its finest, allowing lesser qualified kids of rich parents to get into the highest rung of academic social status by transfer of wealth instead of merit, and this isn't even touching the alumni preference that rich families usually automatically have
greed.
Pessimistic me would suggest that sports is the only way to get most Americans to give a shit about higher education.
Some of these places make buku bucks off their football teams, "College sports bring in well over $1 billion per year. However, the vast majority of this revenue is generated by college football teams."
We just don't have these at all here, at least not in the same form as you guys. Most unis don't have any sports team at all, but those that do have something that's structurally more similar to a sports club. Only competitive matches are either amicable or part of broader, continuous events. They're free to attend either way, and coaches and equipment are paid through club subscriptions or funds. It's financially totally separate from the university's own administration, and it sure as shit ain't a way for them to make money. I wouldn't have it any other way to be honest.
If those kind of morals got you rich in the first place, why stop there
An amusing twist to the American Dream to be sure
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