It's not a surprise to anyone that the college admissions system is broken and fraught with greed.
Money is power, money is the influence, and money gives you privilege.
Knowing this, it really shouldn't be that shocking that rich parents around the country have been bribing and scamming their children's way into well-known, elite universities. It's something we see on television all the time — the snobby, spoiled, rich kid enrolled in a great school to become a lawyer or a doctor like his father. Typically, he has zero drive and isn't all that bright. That character is always the antagonist in most films and tv shows.
That really should have clued the rest of us in on what's happening with college admissions since the media loves to slyly portray the reality of elite life. Even if it didn't, everyone knows that children of rich families that make big donations to schools get a huge leg up when determining if they are getting accepted or not. They basically get a second look at their application because that university is now going to take that money into account. More often than not, it's going to be beneficial for those children. This swaying of an admissions committee (regardless if they claim it doesn't affect their decision — we all know it does) is completely legal.
Instead of going this route, however, over forty parents across the nation allegedly made the decision to ridiculously illegally pay anywhere from $100,000 to $6 million to get their kids into school, by cheating on SATS by bribing proctors, as well as by lying about their children's athletic background in high school. Lori Loughlin, best known for playing Aunt Becky on Full House, is one of the parents with an arrest warrant on her head.
I think I speak for most college students when I say screw you.
Hundreds of thousands of children apply to top schools after four years of hard work, dedication, and an abundance of stress. We pushed ourselves with harder courses, such as IB, AP, or dual enrollment. We strived for great grades, and if we didn't achieve them, we would feel so defeated. We killed ourselves with our workload, not just with school work! Many of us juggled clubs, sports, volunteering, and actual jobs alongside keeping up outstanding grades. I'm sure Loughlin's kids, as well as the other children from the other forty parents, have no idea what that overwhelming pressure and stress the majority of us went through feels like. They were born into privilege: they never had to work hard to get what they wanted because chances are it would just be handed to them.
They have been given every opportunity and every advantage to reach higher in life, to go to good schools, to get amazing jobs, and to continue to be rich and live a life of luxury. All of it is completely based on the money they have and the connections they have with other influential people.
Loughlin, I'm sorry if your kids were too sub-par or just didn't care enough in high school to get accepted into a college based on their own merit, but the top one percent don't need any more advantages over the middle class and lower. In order to get your undeserving child into school, you pushed aside another child who actually worked their ass off to have a fighting chance.
Enjoy that felony charge, Aunt Becky.
