More than 40 people have been indicted in the scheme that allegedly involved students gaining entrance to schools including Georgetown, Stanford, Wake Forest University, Texas, UCLA, USC, and Yale as recruited athletes regardless of their athletic ability.

Federal prosecutors in Boston say parents paid an admissions consultant $25 million from 2011 through Feb. 2019 to bribe the coaches and administrators in order to help their kids get accepted.

TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among dozens of people charged with paying bribes to get their kids into top universities in a widespread college admissions scam, according to reports Tuesday.

Loughlin, meanwhile, and her husband "agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team despite the fact that they did not participate in crew thereby facilitating their admission to USC," court documents said.

Obviously Cal has been doing recruiting all wrong if they were not participating...

Update ! ABC news listed UCLA as the 'University of Southern California -- Los Angeles'
so much for the University of California brand...

Update 2 ! FBI special agent says 300 FBI, IRS agents participated in arrests in alleged college cheating scam, named "Operation Varsity Blues"; 38 individuals have been taken into custody so far. http://abcn.ws/2EXG8Id

$500,000 to establish fake "crew" cred. America, I weep for thee.

Anarchistbear said:

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$500,000 to establish fake "crew" cred. America, I weep for thee.

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Trump capitalism at it's finest... The GOP college alternative to Bernie Sanders

Don't they realize they could just bribe the University directly and cut out the consultant? "The Felicity Huffman School for Performing Arts and Rowing."

Among the college coaches involved in the alleged scheme was Rudy Meredith, the former head women's soccer coach at Yale, and John Vandemoer, the sailing coach at Stanford University.

For one applicant, Meredith who resigned from his position in November created a fake athletic profile and said the person was a recruit for the Yale women's soccer team even though the applicant "did not play competitive soccer."

What are the ramifications for cheating in intercollegiate sailing ?

Athletic coaches from Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others, are implicated as well as parents and exam administrators, federal prosecutors said.

Of the other defendants, several are sports coaches or administrators at the University of Southern California, UCLA, Yale and Wake Forest universities. The indictment accuses defendants of committing crimes between 2011 and 2019.

Is the solution having Athletic Departments for Revenue sports only? I imagine that punishing a football program for infractions on the sailing team would be inflammatory.

The criminal complaint is displayed on this web site.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin-college-entrance-cheating

I'm a little surprised this didn't surface sooner. So many people would have to have knowledge of the scheme, it would be bound to leak. For example, if you're a college coach who is taking bribes to get non-athletes admitted to your school as preferred walk-ons to your team, you would think your assistant coach(es) would at least suspect something is going on: "Coach, why did we recruit this kid Johnny? I can't find any evidence that he even played the sport in HS. The coach at his HS has never heard of him."

I would also be surprised if this isn't the tip of an iceberg. I know the head coach of a women's intercollegiate sports program at a UC school. I once asked him how many walk-ons he could get admitted to the school per year, assuming there was some limit. He told me, "as many as I want." When I said there has to be some limit, he said "not really, I just call up the admissions office and it's done." Now, I still assume he is exaggerating about his admissions ability being completely without limit but the point is there is ample ability for a coach to take bribes to make a favorable admissions decision happen. And there is such great societal pressure on and competitiveness in college admissions these days, there was bound to be this sort of corruption. It's like how black markets develop when there is some sort of artificial limit placed on a supply of a much-desired good or service.

Now that this is out in the open, I would expect colleges everywhere will be applying greater scrutiny to admissions for athletes. I also expect more college coaches to lose their jobs over similar scandals.

FuzzyWuzzy said:

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I'm a little surprised this didn't surface sooner. So many people would have to have knowledge of the scheme, it would be bound to leak. For example, if you're a college coach who is taking bribes to get non-athletes admitted to your school as preferred walk-ons to your team, you would think your assistant coach(es) would at least suspect something is going on: "Coach, why did we recruit this kid Johnny? I can't find any evidence that he even played the sport in HS. The coach at his HS has never heard of him."

I would also be surprised if this isn't the tip of an iceberg. I know the head coach of a women's intercollegiate sports program at a UC school. I once asked him how many walk-ons he could get admitted to the school per year, assuming there was some limit. He told me, "as many as I want." When I said there has to be some limit, he said "not really, I just call up the admissions office and it's done." Now, I still assume he is exaggerating about his admissions ability being completely without limit but the point is there is ample ability for a coach to take bribes to make a favorable admissions decision happen. And there is such great societal pressure on and competitiveness in college admissions these days, there was bound to be this sort of corruption. It's like how black markets develop when there is some sort of artificial limit placed on a supply of a much-desired good or service.

Now that this is out in the open, I would expect colleges everywhere will be applying greater scrutiny to admissions for athletes. I also expect more college coaches to lose their jobs over similar scandals.

---

Since most of the schools in the indictment were private schools, I wonder if the only ones truly vulnerable are the public schools like UCLA and Texas. Reading the indictment is mind-numbing, but one recurring theme was 'the USC plan'.

sp4149 said:

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FuzzyWuzzy said:

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I'm a little surprised this didn't surface sooner. So many people would have to have knowledge of the scheme, it would be bound to leak. For example, if you're a college coach who is taking bribes to get non-athletes admitted to your school as preferred walk-ons to your team, you would think your assistant coach(es) would at least suspect something is going on: "Coach, why did we recruit this kid Johnny? I can't find any evidence that he even played the sport in HS. The coach at his HS has never heard of him."

I would also be surprised if this isn't the tip of an iceberg. I know the head coach of a women's intercollegiate sports program at a UC school. I once asked him how many walk-ons he could get admitted to the school per year, assuming there was some limit. He told me, "as many as I want." When I said there has to be some limit, he said "not really, I just call up the admissions office and it's done." Now, I still assume he is exaggerating about his admissions ability being completely without limit but the point is there is ample ability for a coach to take bribes to make a favorable admissions decision happen. And there is such great societal pressure on and competitiveness in college admissions these days, there was bound to be this sort of corruption. It's like how black markets develop when there is some sort of artificial limit placed on a supply of a much-desired good or service.

Now that this is out in the open, I would expect colleges everywhere will be applying greater scrutiny to admissions for athletes. I also expect more college coaches to lose their jobs over similar scandals.

---

Since most of the schools in the indictment were private schools, I wonder if the only ones truly vulnerable are the public schools like UCLA and Texas. Reading the indictment is mind-numbing, but one recurring theme was 'the USC plan'.

---

Sorry, didn't read it. So forgive me if I'm not following you. Are you saying that private schools are allowed to give preferences to whomever they want so it's not a problem? It's got to be illegal to give and take money under the table for stuff, right? Maybe the BI legal minds can weigh in.

No one is surprised really...just the method. As to why anyone would be peeved or mad...how about if your kid is competing for the same spot in the regular admissions scheme. My niece was admitted to UCLA the past year...and it took 4 years at a magnet school with double course work, the regular academics and the magnet work. She pulled her first all nighter as a sophomore. Lots of hard work...and tears from I was told. Conversely her parents should have just dropped $500k and pay for fake test scores.

Just goes to show, the rich aren't rich because they work harder or are somehow smarter. They are rich because they have better opportunity, as exemplified in this case, by parents buying their children's way into a good school. In short, the American myth of hard work and self-sacrifice paying off is at least partially BS.

I had a rude awakening when my straight A, 4.38 GPA, 1400 SAT daughter was denied at UCSB and waitlisted at Cal Poly SLO.
She was moved off wait list on first day of review (May 1) and went there as her first choice school (not interested in ucsd acceptance, and didn't apply to UCLA or UCB).

When I was in school, those marks would have gotten you into way more/more competitive schools. But it's even more difficult today, by a mile. Anyone else have an opinion about this. Younger sister, a junior, has the same 1400 and straight A's, but are we again looking at iffy (from an elite standpoint, at least) results?

1400 is about 96th percentile. I thought that was fairly elite, no?

golden sloth said:

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Just goes to show, the rich aren't rich because they work harder or are somehow smarter. They are rich because they have better opportunity, as exemplified in this case, by parents buying their children's way into a good school. In short, the American myth of hard work and self-sacrifice paying off is at least partially BS.

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There's a large swath of folks (atlas shrugged crowd) who think that that's how the world works.
Not always.
Not even half the time.

Another Bear said:

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No one is surprised really...just the method. As to why anyone would be peeved or mad...how about if your kid is competing for the same spot in the regular admissions scheme. My niece was admitted to UCLA the past year...and it took 4 years at a magnet school with double course work, the regular academics and the magnet work. She pulled her first all nighter as a sophomore. Lots of hard work...and tears from I was told. Conversely her parents should have just dropped $500k and pay for fake test scores.

---

We've actually backed off on pushing for "excessive extra", either in form of endless sat prep or every single AP class.
I was influenced by the subtle pressures of growing up in an elite environment, and the documentary "Race To Nowhere".
It's all very interesting. Brand name colleges can definitely help. But if the child grows up without a solid psychological base, what's it worth?

I wonder what your brother and sister would have to say about it all. Or your niece.

concordtom said:

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Another Bear said:

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No one is surprised really...just the method. As to why anyone would be peeved or mad...how about if your kid is competing for the same spot in the regular admissions scheme. My niece was admitted to UCLA the past year...and it took 4 years at a magnet school with double course work, the regular academics and the magnet work. She pulled her first all nighter as a sophomore. Lots of hard work...and tears from I was told. Conversely her parents should have just dropped $500k and pay for fake test scores.

---

We've actually backed off on pushing for "excessive extra", either in form of endless sat prep or every single AP class.
I was influenced by the subtle pressures of growing up in an elite environment, and the documentary "Race To Nowhere".
It's all very interesting. Brand name colleges can definitely help. But if the child grows up without a solid psychological base, what's it worth?

I wonder what your brother and sister would have to say about it all. Or your niece.

---

The funny thing is her parents are artist/musicians types and a lot of it is the kid, not the parents. But she went to an art magnet school so her parents understood that part and support but she pretty much was self-motivated but her parents backed her up. Very smart kid. She's already bored at school from I was told...so she's taking more course work. Conversely her older brother wasn't into school, didn't go to a magnet, so he ended up at ASU, pushed out of state like many kids when UC and CSU took in out of staters to pay for things. In other words, she's the smart one.

p.s. I'm kidding about dropping $500k. That was never happening.

FuzzyWuzzy said:

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sp4149 said:

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FuzzyWuzzy said:

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I'm a little surprised this didn't surface sooner. So many people would have to have knowledge of the scheme, it would be bound to leak. For example, if you're a college coach who is taking bribes to get non-athletes admitted to your school as preferred walk-ons to your team, you would think your assistant coach(es) would at least suspect something is going on: "Coach, why did we recruit this kid Johnny? I can't find any evidence that he even played the sport in HS. The coach at his HS has never heard of him."

I would also be surprised if this isn't the tip of an iceberg. I know the head coach of a women's intercollegiate sports program at a UC school. I once asked him how many walk-ons he could get admitted to the school per year, assuming there was some limit. He told me, "as many as I want." When I said there has to be some limit, he said "not really, I just call up the admissions office and it's done." Now, I still assume he is exaggerating about his admissions ability being completely without limit but the point is there is ample ability for a coach to take bribes to make a favorable admissions decision happen. And there is such great societal pressure on and competitiveness in college admissions these days, there was bound to be this sort of corruption. It's like how black markets develop when there is some sort of artificial limit placed on a supply of a much-desired good or service.

Now that this is out in the open, I would expect colleges everywhere will be applying greater scrutiny to admissions for athletes. I also expect more college coaches to lose their jobs over similar scandals.

---

Since most of the schools in the indictment were private schools, I wonder if the only ones truly vulnerable are the public schools like UCLA and Texas. Reading the indictment is mind-numbing, but one recurring theme was 'the USC plan'.

---

Sorry, didn't read it. So forgive me if I'm not following you. Are you saying that private schools are allowed to give preferences to whomever they want so it's not a problem? It's got to be illegal to give and take money under the table for stuff, right? Maybe the BI legal minds can weigh in.

---

The indictment implied that the usual method for private schools involved a back door of large contributions to the university and that this scheme was a side door, aka avoiding the multi-mega gifts to the private schools. I have never expected that admission to private schools was meritocracy, money still talks. In this case the private schools may be miffed because admission was granted without the required mega-donation.

So far the indictment implies that the total money involved was over $25 million, but the largest 'contribution' I saw was $500,000 by Lori Loughlin for getting her girls admitted as PWOs to the crew team. The 'donations' for having a ringer take an admissions test were much lower, $15-25K. Only 50 were indicted, indicating an average contribution of $500K; the numbers do not compute, only 33 parents were indicted, and most of them were for the lower amounts for taking the admissions tests. The hub of the conspiracy claimed to have assisted over 90,000 adults in the college admissions process. This is being pursued on racketeering charges (RICO?) so the consequences for those implicated could be considerable. I imagine that those who have not been indicted may be contacting the Feds to negotiate a plea agreement to keep their names out of the headlines. The 33 parents may be closer to 1000 total, mostly not yet indicted. So far only two coaches and one administrator have been implicated (at private schools).

If the NCAA can't audit the budget of private schools' athletics, I don't see NCAA involvement in this case outside of sacrificing the public schools (UCLA & Texas) as a lesson to all.

Another Bear said:

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No one is surprised really...just the method. As to why anyone would be peeved or mad...how about if your kid is competing for the same spot in the regular admissions scheme. My niece was admitted to UCLA the past year...and it took 4 years at a magnet school with double course work, the regular academics and the magnet work. She pulled her first all nighter as a sophomore. Lots of hard work...and tears from I was told. Conversely her parents should have just dropped $500k and pay for fake test scores.

---

The $500K figure was for Lori Loughlin's two daughters getting preferred status for women's crew recruitment. The fake test scores were much cheaper $15K-$25K. I suspect the actual number of parents involved in fake test scores is closer to 1000 than the 33 indicted today. For my own personal reasons I view the fake test scores as the bigger crime even if the value isn't that great.

sp4149 said:

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Another Bear said:

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No one is surprised really...just the method. As to why anyone would be peeved or mad...how about if your kid is competing for the same spot in the regular admissions scheme. My niece was admitted to UCLA the past year...and it took 4 years at a magnet school with double course work, the regular academics and the magnet work. She pulled her first all nighter as a sophomore. Lots of hard work...and tears from I was told. Conversely her parents should have just dropped $500k and pay for fake test scores.

---

The $500K figure was for Lori Loughlin's two daughters getting preferred status for women's crew recruitment. The fake test scores were much cheaper $15K-$25K. I suspect the actual number of parents involved in fake test scores is closer to 1000 than the 33 indicted today. For my own personal reasons I view the fake test scores as the bigger crime even if the value isn't that great.

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Big buck bribes, celebs and back door access always shock but I agree, the cheating is a bigger deal because it's education. Cheating on testing goes against a base core value of education. If it's breached...what's the point, the whole system gets corrupted.

About 3.6 million students are expected to graduate from high school in 201819, including 3.3 million students from public high schools and 0.4 million students from private high schools




This page breaks shows the avg SAT score for various GPA groupings of test takers.
6% of test takers claim a A+ avg, and the corresponding SAT is 1254.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_226.30.asp

Now, how many freshman slots at elite schools, like UCLA, are there?


More than 8,000 domestic applicants to Harvard last year had a perfect grade-point average, more than 3,400 had perfect SAT math scores, and more than 2,700 had perfect SAT verbal scores. All of those figures are higher than the total number of applicants granted admission: 1,962

ConcordTom - I think one thing we tend to have a difficult time wrapping our head around is the fact that there are far more children vying for admission these days but the number of slots at top schools hasn't really increased. The reason there are more applicants is a combo of population growth domestically plus increased interest from wealthy foreign students. I'm just hoping when it's time for my kids to apply there will be some sort of massive worldwide recession that will reduce foreign interest.

As a Great Man, with a very good brain, once said, "When you're rich, you can do anything."

You have to figure at least 50% of Notre Dame's student body are legacy lunkheads or rich kids whose daddies dropped a money grenade in the collection basket at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The DeBartolo name is draped all over that campus.

golden sloth said:

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Just goes to show, the rich aren't rich because they work harder or are somehow smarter. They are rich because they have better opportunity, as exemplified in this case, by parents buying their children's way into a good school. In short, the American myth of hard work and self-sacrifice paying off is at least partially BS.

---

Hey, you don't know how hard I worked to become wealthy. I put in days and weeks per year as the Stanford sailing coach!

Robert Zangrillo, CEO of Dragon Global, a private investment firm based in Miami, Florida.

Do you think this guy owns a tiger? How many katanas do you think hang on the walls of his office? How much cocaine do you think he normally does by 11:00am?

Hate to break the news to you, but the Good Old Boys are still getting their kids/grandkids into Cal.

B.A. Bearacus said:

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Bobodeluxe said:

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As a Great Man, with a very good brain, once said, "When you're rich, you can do anything."

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I think Ivanka is just smart enough to text her dad the following earlier today: "daddy, plz dont comment on the school cheating scandal. kk? i know, it's californ and all, but trust. luv u."

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She apparently forgot to text tRump Lite:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/donald-trump-jr-felicity-huffman-tweet-self-awareness-is-dead.amp

bearister said:

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She apparently forgot to text tRump Lite:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/donald-trump-jr-felicity-huffman-tweet-self-awareness-is-dead.amp

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We're in the no judgement zone: is anyone on here dumber or more of an unlovable priick than Jr?

Boy, he's one serious idiot.

B.A. Bearacus said:

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bearister said:

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She apparently forgot to text tRump Lite:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/donald-trump-jr-felicity-huffman-tweet-self-awareness-is-dead.amp

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We're in the no judgement zone: is anyone on here dumber or more of an unlovable priick than Jr?

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I don't like him but his human garbage of a dad punched him in the face when he was in college in front of his roommates. That evokes some sympathy in me.

Unit2Sucks said:

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ConcordTom - I think one thing we tend to have a difficult time wrapping our head around is the fact that there are far more children vying for admission these days but the number of slots at top schools hasn't really increased. The reason there are more applicants is a combo of population growth domestically plus increased interest from wealthy foreign students. I'm just hoping when it's time for my kids to apply there will be some sort of massive worldwide recession that will reduce foreign interest.

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Yeah. Thanks.

I just can't fathom it....
Cause she/they blow me away.
4.38 and 1400 gets you denial at SB and waitlist at a CSU school?
Who would have thought that possible?

B.A. Bearacus said:

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Bobodeluxe said:

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As a Great Man, with a very good brain, once said, "When you're rich, you can do anything."

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I think Ivanka is just smart enough to text her dad the following earlier today: "daddy, plz dont comment on the school cheating scandal. kk? i know, it's californ and all, but trust. luv u."

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Wikipedia:

Trump attended the Chapin School in Manhattan until she was 15, when she transferred to Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. She characterized Choate's "boarding-school life" as being like a "prison", while her "friends in New York were having fun".

After graduating from Choate, she attended Georgetown University for two years, then transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics in 2004. Her father had also transferred to Wharton after two years at another institution.

concordtom said:

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B.A. Bearacus said:

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Bobodeluxe said:

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As a Great Man, with a very good brain, once said, "When you're rich, you can do anything."

---

I think Ivanka is just smart enough to text her dad the following earlier today: "daddy, plz dont comment on the school cheating scandal. kk? i know, it's californ and all, but trust. luv u."

---

Wikipedia:

Trump attended the Chapin School in Manhattan until she was 15, when she transferred to Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. She characterized Choate's "boarding-school life" as being like a "prison"....

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bearister said:

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It was the first nipple pic ever posted on BI. Compliments of he who was known as Bearister.

Another Bear said:

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Boy, he's one serious idiot.

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Trump Jr. was educated at Buckley School and The Hill School, a college preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, followed by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Economics.

Looks like a UPenn pipeline.
They are open for bidness.