College Corruption
by: Ali Youel
If you are following the news at all right now, you have heard about the College Cheating Scandal. It is taking down major celebs and even people from San Diego. It was released that people were paying INSANE amounts of money to get their children into highly selective schools such as UCLA, Georgetown, UT Austin, Yale, USC and many other prestigious colleges. People would pay William Rick Singer, CEO of college prep company called The Key, to commit fraud in order to get their children into college.
According to an article written by Holly Yan for CNN, Singer would commit “two kinds of fraud,” cheating on the ACT or SAT or use “connections with Division I coaches and use bribes to get these parents' kids into school with fake athletic credentials." Singer has admitted to these charges on Tuesday, March 12th.
For the fake athletic recruitments, Singer would bribe coaches on behalf of the parents in order to secure spots for the students. Lori Loughlin, who plays Aunt Becky on Full House, has been accused of paying half a million dollars to get her two daughters into USC for rowing. Neither of her daughters have rowed.
To cheat on the ACT or SAT, Singer would hire a third party to either secretly take the test instead of the student, or to alter their answers. Parents would pay between “15,000 and 75,000 dollars” to alter the scores of their children. According to the prosecution, Singer would bribe the test administrators to not notice the third party take the test for their student.
This scandal has sparked outrage across the country, with people upset with the advantages wealthy people have in the college admissions system. It was also released that people would fake disabilities in order to receive extra time on the ACT and SAT. Scott Jaschik wrote “Wealthy parents would coach their children into getting diagnosed as having a disability, qualifying for extra time or other accommodations when taking the SAT or ACT. Authorities have charged that this made it easier to cheat on the exams, sometimes by having answers changed, in testing centers controlled by those involved in the alleged scheme.” By using money to fake a learning disability, people have been granted an unfair advantage that wasn’t meant for them. This has infuriated many people, some believing this will make it harder to get extended time for those who need it.
This news is still coming, with more reports being released everyday. There is no doubt people are shaking waiting for their names to be released as the latest involvement in the scheme. The one thing we can get from this, is that cheating always comes back around. You know what they say about karma.