The crime was breathtaking in its audacity. Dozens of well-heeled parents paid millions of dollars to help their children cheat their way into top American colleges, including Yale, Stanford, UCLA and Georgetown. Parents paid middlemen to fake college test scores, bribe universities’ athletic coaches, and fake students’ athletic credentials.
The years-long scheme came crashing down on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, when federal prosecutors charged 50 people with bribery and corruption counts. Among those charged were 33 parents, some of whom were prominent celebrities and business people, coaches, proctors and officials at the College Admissions Board (which administers the SAT standardized test), and the mastermind, William Singer, the founder of a California-based business called Edge College & Career Network, who masterminded the scheme.
In our home, the charges and description of the outlandish scheme felt personal. With teenagers in our family, we’re knee-deep in the college admissions process. Our days are spent discussing the merits of one college over another; our Sundays are often taken up with standardized tests. A recent dinner party turned into a major question and answer session about the college admissions process as our friends all shared their experiences visiting colleges, talking with admissions staff, and signing their kids up for various tests.
One troubling aspect of the recent bombshell charges of corruption are just how unsurprising allegations of fraud and unfair advantage seem. Even before the US Justice Department announced the 50 criminal charges in the college admissions scam, my kids and the kids of my friends were already comparing notes about the best ways to get into colleges. Do some schools discriminate against Jews? How easy is it to get into an East Coast school when you apply from the Midwest? Does being a “legacy”, whose parents are alums, help? Will students whose parents paid for fancy summer programs have an advantage over us?
It’s heartbreaking to see students become cynical just when they are preparing to leave high school and enter the wider world. My fear is that this corruption scandal will cement some students’ views that society at large is an unethical place.
Tragically, that worldview seems to be gaining currency. A 2018 Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans harbored trust for only three institutions (the military, small businesses and the police). Other public institutions – including religious organizations, public schools, newspapers and branches of government – saw dismally low levels of trust. We seem to be living through a crisis of trust. It breaks my heart to think that a whole generation of kids might be learning to mistrust some of the most central institutions in their lives, including school and college officials, coaches and even parents.
One of the saddest aspects of the unfolding scandal is the fact that in some cases parents duped their children.
Some parents paid William Singer and his corrupt business huge amounts, ranging from $15,000 to $75,000, to buy off standardized test proctors and rig students’ scores. In an email exchange released by prosecutors, Singer wrote that many of the students whose parents hired him believed they’d done well on the SAT and other tests themselves. “It was so funny ‘cause the kids will call me and say, ‘Maybe I should do that again. I did pretty well and if I took it again, I’ll do better even.’ Right? And they just have no idea that they didn’t even get the score that they thought they got.”
Instead, Singer counselled parents to concoct reasons that their family had to be out of town on the date of their children’s tests, then take their children to take a standardized site at a testing center where Singer could manipulate the results, either having employees change students’ answers afterwards or in one case even have an adult pretend they were the child and take the test for them.
One parent who eventually decided not to enroll her daughter in the scheme, recognized that her daughter would want to do her best on the tests. She explained in a recorded phone call that her daughter should take one regular test first, then a second, rigged exam. “I just know that no matter what, she’s so academically driven...no matter what happens, even if we go, ‘This is a great score,’ that she’ll go, ‘I really want to take it again.’”
That sort of optimistic hope in her own abilities and capacity for self-improvement is exactly what we all want for our children – and what this scandal has dealt such a grievous blow.
We all want our children to feel that the world is a hopeful place and that their own abilities will be enough to carry them through and allow them to blossom. I’ve told my kids that this admissions scandal is an aberration and that most people would never ever do this. I want to believe that’s enough to reassure them but I’m not so sure. Surrounded by so many examples of unfairness and inequality, it can be hard to raise children who trust that the world is really fair.
I want to give my children a blessing that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai gave to his disciples 2,000 years ago: they should fear God and heaven as much as they fear flesh and blood.
One of the greatest gifts I can give my children is a sense of right and wrong and the courage and inner conviction to live by those standards.
(10) Chanan Simon, March 19, 2019 10:51 AM
Where there is no true concept of right and wrong,
where there is no place for Hashem in our daily life's equation,
then we can make up all the rules of the game of life.
Hashem yearns for us to make Him a place in our world here on earth,
May we always be inspired to live higher lives,
Thank for the article which just paints a very sad reality for our times.
(9) Emil M Friedman, March 15, 2019 6:57 PM
It's self-defeating to cheat one's way into a top college
The competition will be so strong that your grades will be poor and you might flunk out.
(8) Dina, March 14, 2019 6:04 PM
I blame the parents & system
I remember how my niece took several classes and practice SAT exams before taking the real one. My niece was brought up like you, Yvette are bringing up your children, to know what is the right thing to do. Children need to be given tutors at a young age and learn how to do well on their own. Yet, look at Elizabeth Warren who said she was Native American which kept a real Natuve American out of Harvard. I wonder what Ibama's daughter scored or did she get in because of her father? I knew someone who didn't get in even with great scores because she was white and a Black with worse scores got her spot. So, stuff has been going on for decades. All it does is cheapen what a degree stands for. Soon, employers won't even look at what college anyone went to or their GPA. It won't mean anything. I feel bad for these kids who one day will have to make it on their own in the real world without mom & dad cheating for them. It's the children who lose all the way around. Yvette, best wishes for your chikdren. You are a great role model.
Nancy, March 14, 2019 6:41 PM
To commenter #9 Dina
Our system is certainly far from perfect, but I think much more blame needs to go to the parents here. With all of their wealth they certainly could have hired SAT tutors and coaches to help with test taking and essay writing the honest way. Lori Loughlin's daughter does not even want to be in school as she is busy making videos! Not wanting to go to college is not something unethical. Being enrolled in college and cutting class most of the time is, as you are taking the spot of someone who truly deserves to be there.
(7) G. D. McFetridge, March 14, 2019 5:39 PM
How the privileged class functions.
In the United States 10% of the population has 76% of the wealth, and I would contend that that is no accident. Fixing the game to serve themselves is what the ruling masters and their toadies the privileged class do and have been doing for a long time, so how does any of this current scandal come as a surprise? Are you kidding me? Want a truly just world? Try leveling the playing field ... but of course the 10% are not going to give up their privilege without a fight. Thus revolution. We need a revolution ... soon!
(6) Leon, March 14, 2019 4:43 PM
Take tests on college premises
To reduce fraud, make applicants take admission tests (not necessarily SAT) on college premises, on the same date. To avoid discrimination, make admission decisions based only on test results.
(5) Dvirah, March 14, 2019 4:21 PM
Way of Life
This process probably started in grade school, with the parents threatening the teachers to give good grades instead of demanding from their children that they actually study and learn. So these young people are used to getting good grades without putting in the real effort needed - and quite probably don't even realize that there is a connection between work and outcome. It is to be hoped that they will reach the correct conclusion from this lesson!
(4) Anonymous, March 14, 2019 3:52 PM
USC not UCLA
Unless I’m mistaken, University of Southern California was implicated, not UCLA
(3) chris kelly, March 14, 2019 3:26 PM
the admissions joke
this has been going on since the 50's. the same goes for athletics. big schools used to recruit 125 instead of 85 i.e. football D-1. This scandal was that they would not have to play against them. It was incredible because nobody cared because it was good by all. that is why the same 25 schools were called BLUE BLOODS. Others did it also. THIS is the result of ESPN and criminal coaches. Summer camps were the genesis. I was a product of this system of regularity.
(2) Joseph A Apicella, March 13, 2019 2:27 PM
Torah II Samuel 12
The scripture makes the point that the rich who take from the poor are subject to divine punishment. These parents could afford private tutors,coaches, editors for school essays and money. They still had to cheat and take the place of a poorer student.
(1) Nancy, March 13, 2019 11:37 AM
Two things have stood out for me here
First, this scandal made me realize how I have gotten accustomed to the inequality of this process. If a wealthy parent makes a sizable donation to Harvard, we can pretty much guess that his/her child will be admitted to the school thus pushing out a less wealthy but academically deserving student. Second, I was very angry when Lori Loughlin's daughter indicated she didn't really have the time to go to class! Of course, as always I thank you Yvette Alt Miller for writing such an eloquent article.