College entrance cheating scam

[seriously?]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/colle ... index.html

[DD-Tech]

I want names... all of them.

[seriously?]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/a-slew- ... -scam.html

Complete list. Love the attorney and hedge fund guys.

Gordon Caplan, 52, of Greenwich, Conn., co-chairman of Willkie Farr, which says it has 700 lawyers in 10 offices in six countries.

[a fan]

I don't get it. If you have that kind of money, and your kid didn't have grades, why would you care what college you kid attended?

Who are they trying to impress?

[faircornell]

I don't get it. If you have that kind of money, and your kid didn't have grades, why would you care what college you kid attended?

Who are they trying to impress?

I think it's guilt for being an absentee parent.

[seriously?]

Don't blame the children. They didn't know.

Of course they did. Or if they are truly that stunad they absolutely do not belong at any of those colleges. Or college at all.

[youthathletics]

I don't get it. If you have that kind of money, and your kid didn't have grades, why would you care what college you kid attended?

Who are they trying to impress?

I think it's guilt for being an absentee parent.

...that too. Because the grades are not what is important, it is the entrance into relationships, particular elitist clubs and social groups. We all know it is not what you know, it is who you know.

[a fan]

But they are already in that club.....look at the list of people. They already know a bunch of rich people.

None of it makes sense. The degree, if they get it, is useless for these kids.

[seriously?]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... veMkZc-NRE[/youtube]

No wonder they needed to bribe people.

[CU77]

But they are already in that club.....look at the list of people. They already know a bunch of rich people.

None of it makes sense. The degree, if they get it, is useless for these kids.

WAPO columnist Molly Roberts explains it well:

Then there’s the strangeness of the logic behind paying for it at all: Children whose parents can throw around that sort of money as if it’s nothing are going to be okay. They can live off their family’s largesse without a bachelor’s degree, or at least without an Ivy League diploma, and they can capitalize on connections they already have from growing up alongside the powerful. So why college? And why these highly selective schools?

The answers go back to the myth of meritocracy and how these parents prop it up — even as they undermine meritocracy itself.

Why college? Many Americans fetishize the attendance of four-year institutions. Going to college, we think, is what smart and successful people do — especially people like the financiers who made up a sizable chunk of the now-indicted parents. Living a life of luxury looks a lot less questionable if there’s some indication you made it there on merit. A degree is society’s stamp of supposed deservingness.

Sure, there’s a more innocent explanation for our collective appreciation for college, too. College might not be what’s best for everyone, but it’s invaluable for many young people seeking to learn critical thinking and independence and to form friendships they’d have been unlikely to develop anywhere else.

But that’s where the second question comes in. The sorts of children whose parents reportedly sneaked them into Yale already went to private schools, or exemplary public ones. They could go to college somewhere, even if it didn’t show up on the first page of U.S. News and World Report rankings, without the “side door” the architect of the fraud reportedly promised.

So why these colleges? It’s because the societal stamp of deservingness from a place on page one is extra shiny.

Parents who care whether their children attend one of America’s “best” schools are buying into the idea of being the best. There are material advantages to attending one of these colleges, yes, from plush employment to social connections. But most of the children implicated in this scandal don’t need those advantages. They already have them. What a family gains from sending its scions to those schools is less concrete: the perception that the children are smart and successful, so that they can exist without shame in the high-achieving circles where they were reared — and the parents can, too.

Purchasing a mini-campus with your name on it doesn’t serve that purpose nearly so well, because the corruption is written right there on the portico. It has to look like the beneficiaries of academic cachet at least sort of earned it. Better still if the students, unaware of or unwilling to recognize the advantages they’ve received, believe they’ve earned it, too. Recommendation letters or phone calls from big-shot family friends, standard-size donations, SAT tutoring and more are the same game played on a smaller scale.

This is a tension strung so tight it should snap. Parents allegedly committed fraud to send their children to these schools because they believe those schools are superior. That image of superiority depends on the perception of the schools as places for smart and successful people to study. But by allegedly buying admission for students who are neither especially smart nor especially successful, these parents are guaranteeing that the Stanfords of the country aren’t actually only for smart and successful people, after all. They’re for people who can pay. Then, the schools churn out kids positioned to be rich — many of whom were rich to start with — and the cycle continues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... s-it-alive

We can be glad lax hasn't been tainted (yet). The very high profile UCLA men's soccer coach (two national-championship-game appearances under his helm) is one of the accused bribe-takers.

[a fan]

What a family gains from sending its scions to those schools is less concrete: the perception that the children are smart and successful, so that they can exist without shame in the high-achieving circles where they were reared — and the parents can, too.

I don't know whether I took one too many classes on existentialism, or if these people have never had to deal with death---but I don't get how you get to be in your 50's+, and give a *hit about anyone's opinions other than your close family. And, of course, yourself.

Do these people not know we're all going to die one day? All that money. All that power. And THIS is what they blow time/effort on?

What blows me away is the sheer number of people who have been caught doing this. It's telling, isn't it?

All their kids are pointless. They're going to "consume things" for 80 years, and die. That's it. All that advantage, and they're on YouTube (thanks for the link, "seriously?", talking about what they got for Christmas? And that child has 1,000,000 viewers?

"What did you do with your life, young lady?" "Oh, I buy stuff, tee-hee"

Depressing.

And people are wondering why Ocascio Cortez and Bernie are gaining traction.

Remember that huge tax cut? So we borrowed a few Trillion on Uncle Sam's credit card, and handed it to people like this 80's sitcom star, so that she could give it to the USC Rowing Coach, so she could get her moron of a daughter into USC.

Way to go, Republicans. Government money well spent. Hey, let's cut taxes on the rich again, eh? It's working out awesome so far.

[CU77]

My favorite part is that they deducted their bribes as charitable contributions (for the education of disadvantaged youth!) on their tax returns.

[SCLaxAttack]

But they are already in that club.....look at the list of people. They already know a bunch of rich people.

None of it makes sense. The degree, if they get it, is useless for these kids.

Oh, come on fan, with all due respect you have see the importance of these people’s kids going to the right schools. In reality your company needs this sort of perception, too.

No doubt many people drink your spirits for quality, but at the holiday party people like this throw at their homes what makes a better impression - a row of your Small Batch bottles or Seagram’s 7 and Gilbey’s gin?

They can’t say “My Jimmy’s doing great at Nassau Community College” to the CEO with the country club locker next to their’s. Just wouldn’t fly.

[a fan]

But they are already in that club.....look at the list of people. They already know a bunch of rich people.

None of it makes sense. The degree, if they get it, is useless for these kids.

Oh, come on fan, with all due respect you have see the importance of these people’s kids going to the right schools. In reality your company needs this sort of perception, too.

No doubt many people drink your spirits for quality, but at the holiday party people like this throw at their homes what makes a better impression - a row of your Small Batch bottles or Seagram’s 7 and Gilbey’s gin?

Sure. But that's not the analogy here. The analogy would be that they broke into a liquor store to steal bottles of my spirits so that they could impress the neighbors. That's lunacy.

They can’t say “My Jimmy’s doing great at Nassau Community College” to the CEO with the country club locker next to their’s. Just wouldn’t fly.

Well I get that. But you could certainly say "she's traveling in Europe, figuring out her life". Or "I bankrolled a business idea of hers". Or, or, or...these people are idiots with no imagination, is my point. I can list 1,000 things that would be perfectly socially acceptable for these CEO's kids to do, without faking acceptance to Yale....and at a fraction of the cost they spent.

[SCLaxAttack]

But they are already in that club.....look at the list of people. They already know a bunch of rich people.

None of it makes sense. The degree, if they get it, is useless for these kids.

Oh, come on fan, with all due respect you have see the importance of these people’s kids going to the right schools. In reality your company needs this sort of perception, too.

No doubt many people drink your spirits for quality, but at the holiday party people like this throw at their homes what makes a better impression - a row of your Small Batch bottles or Seagram’s 7 and Gilbey’s gin?

Sure. But that's not the analogy here. The analogy would be that they broke into a liquor store to steal bottles of my spirits so that they could impress the neighbors. That's lunacy.

They can’t say “My Jimmy’s doing great at Nassau Community College” to the CEO with the country club locker next to their’s. Just wouldn’t fly.

Well I get that. But you could certainly say "she's traveling in Europe, figuring out her life". Or "I bankrolled a business idea of hers". Or, or, or...these people are idiots with no imagination, is my point. I can list 1,000 things that would be perfectly socially acceptable for these CEO's kids to do, without faking acceptance to Yale....and at a fraction of the cost they spent.

Afan, let’s properly use your liquor store analogy. They didn’t break in, they slipped the stock boy (athletic coaches) some bucks for the last bottles rather than let the schmo who was waiting in line to ask the store manager (admissions) if they had any left in stock get them.

“Traveling in Europe to figure out their life” wouldn’t fly. Needing to figure out their life is a sign of weakness that reflects poorly on the kid but more importantly for these sorts of parents that have done this, on them. Those 1000s of things you say are socially acceptable are socially acceptable to you, not them.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

i'll ask the question- yes, the universities are the victims of fraud. however. should they have done more (any!) due diligence? (isnt that the very purpose of the admissions department)

fake photos? fake athletes? fake grades? impostor exam takers? can't a quick google search even partially reveal whether a person is what they purport to be? if no, ---> do more.

if the answer is that they admitted a student because of influence, well then they are complicit.

[seriously?]

Chairman, You are right. All recruits should go to one admissions officer. Maybe they do and trust was violated. Nothing surprising in today's morality climate.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

yeah and id take it one step further- take athletics out of it. meaning, you can't have just one athletics/admissions officer.

shouldnt admissions do a little more?

it really defeats the idea that top universities are "selective".

[Brooklyn]

Way to go, Republicans. Government money well spent. Hey, let's cut taxes on the rich again, eh? It's working out awesome so far.

The only time affirmative action is ok to the right wing is when the wealthy elites benefit from it.

[thatsmell]

What your cartoon doesn't realize is it's not only the white right that's being denied admission and complaining about this. Its a whole slew of people.
More of a reason why college is a racket and completely unnecessary.
I've said it before. In the big picture, it doesn't really matter where you go to school or graduate from.
A college degree is a college degree.