College entrance cheating scandal

[cabanafrau]

On a very special Full House...


Michelle: "Dad, dad! I got in to Yale!"

Danny: "Wow, honey, I'm so proud of you!"

Aunt Becky:

It's looking like this family in particular will pay an enormous toll in the aftermath of this, on top of the purported $1 mil they are said to have spent to get these girls admitted to USC. Both parents have been indicted and the prosecution can use the leverage of the potential to charge the girls as a bargaining chip in any deal made to end this, so mom and dad are not going to get a bargain when it comes to the fines paid. Lori Laughlin's squeaky clean image has been a big part of her bankabie career. Since it seems the girls were aware of the deception to gain their admittance it seems the school will be under extreme pressure to expel them.

Some of the non celebrity figures are likely going to have some career worries they probably didn't expect. Lawyers, casino executives and those dealing with anything like securities trading could be not only out of a job, but looking for a new career.

 

[LSUmiss]

Doesn't quite have the name recognition of Yale or Stanford though.

No, I get that but neither does USC or Univer of Texas & ppl still cheated to get into those. But, my point is that if ppl can cheat their way in & survive in these so called elite schools, maybe the programs aren’t as rigorous as they’d have you believe.

 

[bcla]

What I wonder is if some of the kids who were accepted at those colleges did not get in by merit then how do they keep up with the work? Now this is all assumption on my part but if you were accepted at Harvard or Yale would the rigor and expectation be a little bit higher than a state school that accepts lower level scores? At some point I would think the gig would be up if you could not keep up with the challenges.

I've worked with and knew a lot of people who went to private universities. Many indicated "The hardest part is getting in." It's not necessarily that one doesn't learn, but often generous grading makes it easier if one isn't willing to put in the effort. That certainly doesn't apply to MIT, but apparently the first year is so tough that they require all students to take classes pass/fail.

It's also kind of an odd dynamic when it comes to applying for graduate school. On top of easy grading, I've heard that quite a few graduate schools would "weight" the GPA of certain universities higher when applying a formula. Many were well known public schools (like UCs) but also Ivy League and other schools.

 

[bcla]

Even decades ago when I was in college I heard the pejorative acronym for USC was the University for Spoiled Children. As long as your parents had status and the money to pay tuition, you got in no matter your high school grades.

As someone who remembered the old Pac-10 (now Pac-12) rivalries, there were tons of insults based on the acronym. University of South Central based on the perceived location. Not really South Central LA but still a rather bad surrounding neighborhood. I've also heard "Figueroa Tech". They've since walled off the campus and have after hours entry checkpoints. Some of the people I worked with went to USC for graduate schools - many from China or Taiwan. One in particular said he went there because it was the only US graduate school that accepted him. He (having gotten his masters there) called it "University of Stupid Chinese".

 

[scrhsa]

Does having a lot of money make you stupid? How could anyone think this method of getting into college is good for their kid, and good for that child's adult life? it seems they could have just spent the effort throughout their child's life making sure they were performing according their abilities with tutors, extra classes, summer school (you know, so the kid learned something..maybe pride of accomplishment!) maybe even playing sports. It's not hard to be on the crew team in high school, why not be on it!?

I don't understand the end game of the fraud.

I see is as it not being about the kids at all. Its all about what it says about them. "MY kid goes to this school" etc. Celebrities do tend to be a bit of a narcissistic bunch.

 

[bcla]

No, I get that but neither does USC or Univer of Texas & ppl still cheated to get into those. But, my point is that if ppl can cheat their way in & survive in these so called elite schools, maybe the programs aren’t as rigorous as they’d have you believe.

A lot of those places are somewhat notorious for grade inflation. Like I said in another post, a student can put in the effort and succeed, or slack off and possibly still graduate.

However, due to athletic success I would think that USC or Texas does have a higher name recognition than Tulane. Much higher. And of course athletics strangely enough does have a benefit for attracting more students. At least locally we have St Mary's College, which has occasional success in the NCAA men's BB tournament. They say that every time they made it deep in the NCAA Tournament their applications spike.

At my alma mater there's a strange disconnect between the athletic department and the school at large. However, I don't think athletic success is really needed to attract students. The athletic department goes by the name "California" or "Cal" but generally doesn't mention UC Berkeley anywhere. I remember hearing about fans going to a bowl game where fans of the other team were asking "So where is Cal?" I even remember in one discussion on the recruitment of a star athlete (also recruited by Michigan and UVa), one poster was trying to make an insult by saying "Cal isn't as good in academics as UCLA or Berkeley." And the reactions to that were swift.

And tangentially a lot of what this controversy addresses is how schools allow their athletic departments to get special admissions for recruited athletes.

 

[Floridaman999]

I don't want to brag or anything but many members of my family have degrees from some of the best community colleges in the United States. No bribing needed. We call it The Fullest House.

 

[NotUrsula]

It's looking like this family in particular will pay an enormous toll in the aftermath of this, on top of the purported $1 mil they are said to have spent to get these girls admitted to USC. Both parents have been indicted and the prosecution can use the leverage of the potential to charge the girls as a bargaining chip in any deal made to end this, so mom and dad are not going to get a bargain when it comes to the fines paid. Lori Laughlin's squeaky clean image has been a big part of her bankabie career. Since it seems the girls were aware of the deception to gain their admittance it seems the school will be under extreme pressure to expel them.

Some of the non celebrity figures are likely going to have some career worries they probably didn't expect. Lawyers, casino executives and those dealing with anything like securities trading could be not only out of a job, but looking for a new career.

Yup. Huffman and Laughlin are actors, and for the most part this isn't going to hurt their careers all that much. Some production companies won't hire them, but there are plenty that still will (and don't count out Laughlin's "chick flick" creds yet; there are a lot of women who will discount her crime on the basis of why she supposedly did it.)

OTOH, as you said, for the attorneys and real estate developers in the bunch, this is the tip of the iceberg. Disbarrments will happen, and companies will fail, leaving investors holding the bag.

There is also some danger that the billion-dollar industry that is NCAA Division 1 marquee sports could be screwed as well. One of the articles that I read pointed out that if Mark Liddell (the IMG Academy exam administrator who corrected tests for pay) also corrected the tests of the Academy's own students to assure that they met NCAA eligibility requirements, then countless alumni of the school could lose their NCAA eligibility, which could in turn expose the teams that they now play on to NCAA sanctions. Most of the college-staff bribes involved so-called "country club" sports that are not big moneymakers, but IMG's graduates include stars in money sports such as football, baseball and basketball.

 

[bcla]

There is also some danger that the billion-dollar industry that is NCAA Division 1 marquee sports could be screwed as well. One of the articles that I read pointed out that if Mark Liddell (the IMG Academy exam administrator who corrected tests for pay) also corrected the tests of the Academy's own students to assure that they met NCAA eligibility requirements, then countless alumni of the school could lose their NCAA eligibility, which could in turn expose the teams that they now play on to NCAA sanctions. Most of the college-staff bribes involved so-called "country club" sports that are not big moneymakers, but IMG's graduates include stars in money sports such as football, baseball and basketball.

At least locally it's been the Stanford sailing coach. Heard he was arrested in Hawaii. The irony there is that sailing isn't an NCAA sport but Stanford considers it part of their intercollegiate athletic department even though most of their competition considers it a club-level program.

 

[Disneylover99]

Some kids didn't know about their parents involvement. I think Lori Loughlin's kids both did. I think they are the ones who pretended to row crew and posed for pictures on ERG machines in order to get into The University of Spoiled Children. Their dad emailed the pix to their “ contact” and cc’d Loughlin so it ties both parents to the crime.

I also read that Lori cc’d her daughter the emails, talking about what to tell her guidance counsellor at school who seemed suspicious. Was her daughter 18 at the time? Could this tie her daughter to the crimes? I read that some of the students may be charged.

 

[kidshop]

I've worked with and knew a lot of people who went to private universities. Many indicated "The hardest part is getting in." It's not necessarily that one doesn't learn, but often generous grading makes it easier if one isn't willing to put in the effort. That certainly doesn't apply to MIT, but apparently the first year is so tough that they require all students to take classes pass/fail.

.

Actually the first year, or maybe just the first semester is pass/no record, so it's like it never happened if needed.

 

[DopeyDame]

FAFSA will only use the parent or adoptive parent income. No one else. Doesn’t matter who raises the student. She didn’t cheat that one. If she was a ward of the court, that makes her an independent student so they use her income.

As for the tutor, a lot of college athletes do have them. And I am sure many of the tutors do the work. 35 years ago when I attended the local university, I had a sociology process who complained often about how the football players were required a lower ACT score than other students and were roomed with their tutor. Frustrating, yes, but not new. And I fault the schools more than the student. Most 19-20 year olds would happily accept all that help thrown their way.

I know this has come up before, but... no need to specify "adoptive parent". Unless it's somehow relevant. Maybe you meant to write "c-section parent or adoptive parent" income?

 

[DopeyDame]

Obviously what the parents did is crappy and horrible and illegal. But I'm honestly far more disturbed by what the coaches/admins/test administrators did who knowingly accepted the bribes.
All those kids who got denied into Georgetown or USC or Stanford in the last few weeks must want to punch a wall right about now.

 

[sk!mom]

The actual charges aren't because of the crime, but the means of communicating it: mail and wire fraud are federal crimes.

why an asterisk? Anybody who graduates from a university did the work to earn the degree.

The “asterisk” of people noting for years to come that they cheated to get in. And some would question whether someone who cheated to get in is going to be honest and above board once in.

While some kids didn’t know that their parents cheated, some had to have known. For instance did Laughlin’s daughters not wonder why they needed rowing pics?

 

[cabanafrau]

I know this has come up before, but... no need to specify "adoptive parent". Unless it's somehow relevant. Maybe you meant to write "c-section parent or adoptive parent" income?

What's a c-section parent?

 

[kaytieeldr]

But don't kid yourself. There are college graduates who did NOT earn their degrees.

I don't doubt this at all. I just specifically don't understand why the students here would be asterisked. Do schools normally grant known questionable degrees?

My guess for why william h macy is off the hook- Felicity and William have seperate accounts and the mail or wire fraud originated out of her account.

Lori and Mossimo may have a joint account which hooks them both.

(Just a guess I obviously don’t know what celebs share bank accounts with their spouses haha).

I think this guess sounds pretty accurste.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

 

[kaytieeldr]

Weren't a fair number of the students "recruited" for sports they didn't even play? If they aren't clever enough to connect those dots themselves I guess it's no wonder they couldn't get accepted to a decent school...

Admitted, sure. But if they were recruited, it was the parents' deception.

For punishment they should be forced to actually row crew! As a former oarsman, I think it would be a great lesson for them.

Why penalize the crew team?

 

[kaytieeldr]

I know this has come up before, but... no need to specify "adoptive parent". Unless it's somehow relevant. Maybe you meant to write "c-section parent or adoptive parent" income?

Or maybe just actual parent? Or legal parent? To differentiate from guardian?

 

[kaytieeldr]

What's a c-section parent?

Physical/birth parent(s).