These past two months, the nation has been shaken by an admissions scandal which has placed some of the most prestigious colleges in the country in hot water. Colleges gave special admission status or acceptances to those who donated large sums of money through phony charitable foundations, bribed coaches to make students seem like athletes, and other forms of financial crime. Here’s what students have to say.
“I was astounded that any parent would pay half a million dollars to get their kid into UCLA of all places,” said Quinn Proudler, a Senior at Oliver Ames. “This just goes to show that the entire college system is pivoted around arbitrary schools with name recognition and not actual academic desire.”
Some of the notable people in the scandal include Lori Loughlin, Lisa O’Connor, and Tommaso Boddi. Many of the parents paid money to administrators in order to give more test time for the SAT, correct SAt test scores, and in a few cases, make the student seem like a student athlete with faked documents of participation in sports including pictures, forms, and false game records even when the student has never played the sport before.
“Obviously, the parents must be punished. But do you kick the kids out of school if they had gotten in because of that scandal? I do not think they should be, they would have no way of getting into a new school and would have to start all over,” said Aaron Fischer, a senior at Oliver Ames. “Also, I believe the kids knowledge of the scandal could be considered in this decision. More likely then not, they did not know.”
Between 2011 and February 2019, prosecutors say the parents collectively paid upwards of US $25 million to colleges where students might not have been accepted otherwise. Current court proceedings are underway in order to determine to what extent the parents have broken the law.
“Who cares? I don’t even care what other people do. It’s the politics that make a big deal out of it, not the citizens,” said Dean Pacini, a senior at Oliver Ames and team captain of the wrestling and football team.
As most of the parents have started to take plea deals, Lori Loughlin has chosen to not. She currently faces up to 15 counts of financial crimes, including racketeering and conspiracy. She could receive up to 40 years in federal prison if convicted.
“Olivia Jade (daughter of Lori Loughlin) just wanted to party, that’s it,” said Olivia Piazza, a senior at Oliver Ames. “She didn’t care about going to college, but she still got in.”
Facts and figures obtained from NBC News.