"You didn't bribe anyone to get into there, right?" an older lady at the airport asked with a raised eyebrow.

I laughed and replied, "No, definitely not." But I couldn't help feeling a sense of embarrassment that my school, which I had been so proud to be attending, was now back in the spotlight as the school of scandal and rich kids.

I decided to leave my USC sweatshirt at home.

To be honest, I wasn't even that surprised. I had heard of other students weaseling their way into colleges by having their parents donate millions of dollars, funding a building, being a legacy student. USC even has spring admittance, which is unspokenly used to admit rich students without lowering their fall admission statistics. These are all tactics which unfortunately gives USC, despite its prestige, the "rich kid" reputation.

However, USC has recently been trying to shake this reputation off in the past few years. The past President, Max Nikias, had put efforts into putting money towards financial and merit scholarships, as well as creating a college prep program for Los Angeles high schoolers. In 2016, it ranked third among American universities to award Pell Grants. There was a legitimate and working effort to reignite the prestige of USC and shake the "spoiled children" stereotype it was given after the past few years.

But this recent scandal set back the efforts made.

In case you didn't hear, it was recently exposed by the FBI that parents were spending thousands of dollars to bribe college athletic coaches to "recruit" their children and guarantee admission to schools including UCLA, Stanford, Yale, and USC. In addition, parents were also spending money to bribe SAT proctors. It seems like we've heard this story before; Charles Kushner donated $2.5 million dollars to Harvard and then came Jared Kushner's admittance. But the difference here is that instead of paying the school directly, the money was going to an individual: a coach, an athletic director.

The case that got the most attention was the bribery involving Lori Loughlin's daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose to USC. It was reported that not only did they spent $500,000 on bribes for them to be put on the USC crew team, but also bribes to SAT test proctors. Their story shook media outlets across the country, and jokes began to be made about targeting USC's reputation and compliance.

But we all knew this was happening; not just at USC, but at universities all over the country. The only reason why we're infuriated now is that instead of doing it the legal way (donating millions to the school to give their kid more likely admission), they're doing it the illegal way (donating a few thousand to a coach for guaranteed admission).

We all know college admissions favor the wealthy. We know that if you're a legacy applicant or if your parents donate a few million, for some reason you're more likely to get in. If you're rich, you're more likely to be able to afford tutors, you aren't needed at home to take care of any siblings, you have more time and resources that those who are poor do not. They are often bound to be better students than those who are less well off than they are. There is nothing that can be done to prevent this advantage.

What is infuriating is that those with wealth don't always use it towards education. With money comes privilege to achieve so much more -- some pay for expensive private schools, SAT tutors, extravagant extracurriculars. They do not have to worry about getting a job to support themselves or their family. But rather than use this privilege to take these opportunities and get into college the right way, they instead had to bribe their way in. Which is shameful.

Being a student at USC, it's almost a feeling of pride that you worked hard enough to achieve something that someone else had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for. When my parents heard the news, they told me they were proud of themselves that they raised me to be smart enough to be admitted to USC while being middle class and first generation. My parents never went to college, but they were able to afford what they could to make sure I achieved academically.

I'm grateful to have gotten into such a great school, but there is a feeling of embarrassment to know that my institution is one that allowed this sort of scandal to occur.