Nationwide College Cheating Scandal - Actresses, Business Owners Charged, Mar 2019

[Elley Mae]

The scheme was discovered accidentally by the FBI while working an unrelated undercover operation about a year ago, officials said. That tip led to a sprawling, nationwide corruption probe.

FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, in college-entrance bribery scheme

....

So what was the “under cover” operation that led to this?

 

[CrimeDawg123]

I have no access to the ultra wealthy, just to the wealthy.

It starts young and I bet it is at everyone’s elementary school. Parents doing the project for the science fair.

When my kids were in high school, some parents were in Hawaii. The mother dictated a paper for her daughter to turn into achool.

My friend taught at a fairly wealthy elementary school. Before computers, a child had a paper typed by a father’s secretary.

How about preschool for the ultra rich? I wonder what tricks are used to get into preschool?

I wonder how honest the grades are in elementary and up in ultra rich schools? I bet a teacher is scared about getting fired if s/he does not provide good grades for powerful parent’s children.

How about sports and how competitive parents are with kid’s sports?

It's like "every kid gets a trophy" ... on steroids

 

[Elley Mae]

“OK, so, who we are — what we do is we help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school,” Singer pitched to Caplan in a June 15 call, according to court papers. “It’s the home run of home runs.”

https://nypost.com/2019/03/12/alleg...nd-used-two-schemes-to-get-kids-into-schools/

Singer, who has been cooperating with prosecutors since September, also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for tipping off several people about the investigation, the feds said. Authorities seized the $5.2 million in his KWF bogus charity account.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Ironically, there was also an episode of Full House where Aunt Becky tries to get her twin sons into a nursery school by fabricating their applications that her two year old children were proficient at playing the bassoon.

In a classic episode of Full House, Lori Loughlin's Aunt Becky refused to play along with a school admissions scam

 

[scdiv]

https://nypost.com/2019/03/12/cheating-your-kids-way-into-college-makes-you-a-rotten-parent/

https://nypost.com/2019/03/12/colle...ws-how-the-rich-rig-the-system-without-shame/

 

[Tighthead]

Well... they did get the best & brightest. The best cheaters & the brightest liars. Demonstrates real motivation. Gumption. Go-getter-ness.
Besides cheating worthy students out of those seats, this fiasco really dumbs down an Ivy-Leage education. No one will know for sure if the spot was bought or earned.

The Ivy League schools have always had legacy students who didn’t merit acceptance. The only differences here are that the money changing hands was illegal, and it wasn’t endorsed and celebrated the way it always has been and still is.

It was much more rampant in the 1980s and before that, but it still exists.

 

[JerseyGirl]

... some students also lied about their ethnicity on applications to take advantage of affirmative action.

Problems arose when Olivia's guidance counselor became curious as to how she managed to receive admission based on her involvement in crew since she did not row.

At the same time, Loughlin complained that her daughter was having difficulty filling out her other college applications, prompting Singer to ask an employee to take care of the task. This was done so as not to draw attention to the fact that it was already confirmed Olivia had received conditional admission to USC.

An example of a student whose face was photoshopped onto another that was included in court documents

At some point, there was a very heated and public altercation between Giannulli and the counselor, which elicited an email from Heinel [USC AD] asking that it not happen again in the future so as to avoid detection.

Everything began to fall apart in October 2018 when the IRS audited Key Worldwide and began to look into donations made by parents whose children were then admitted to USC.

Loughlin and Giannulli were told by Singer to say they had given the $500,000 to the foundation to help 'underserved kids.'

Judge sets bond at $250,000 for Felicity Huffman in college bribery scandal | Daily Mail Online

___

So Olivia was well aware of the scam. She didn't feel the need or didn't want to do any other college applications because she knew she was conditionally accepted at USC as a crew member.

 

[Elley Mae]

College admissions cheating scheme: 3 bizarre details from the complaint

College admissions cheating scheme: 3 bizarre details from the complaint

In an email discussing her daughter's approval to receive extra time to take the SAT, Huffman allegedly used the “Scooby Doo” phrase “Ruh Ro” in an email.

“Ruh Ro! Looks like [my daughter’s high school] wants to provide own proctor,” she allegedly wrote in an email forwarded to Singer from her daughter’s high school counselor.

In one exchange, however, one of Singer’s clients says her daughter is “not stupid” and purportedly proceeds to ask: “How do you do this without telling the kids what you’re doing?”

.....

These are the ones I feel sorry for, the ones that thought they got in on their own.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Jane Buckingham, 50, who once penned a book called, “The Modern Girl’s Guide to Sticky Situations” allegedly agreed to make a $50,000 “charitable donation” in exchange for having a professional take the ACT for her son in July 2018

Singer tells Buckingham, “Okay, so your donation is gonna be 50” in exchange for having the professional take the test.

“Okay,” she replies.

Five days before the test taker was scheduled to cheat for her son, the adviser called to request a handwriting sample from her son, so he could fake it.

Buckingham replies, “Yes. He has not great writing.” She later sent the adviser an emailed sample of her son’s chicken scratch and a note reading, “good luck with this.”

Her son later received a score of 35 on the test. It wasn’t clear where he went to college.

Buckingham later told the adviser she would “probably like to do the same thing with [my daughter].”

https://nypost.com/2019/03/12/mom-i...-book-about-getting-out-of-sticky-situations/

The non-Hollywood parents busted in college bribery scheme | Daily Mail Online

 

[Seattle1]

The Ivy League schools have always had legacy students who didn’t merit acceptance. The only differences here are that the money changing hands was illegal, and it wasn’t endorsed and celebrated the way it always has been and still is.

It was much more rampant in the 1980s and before that, but it still exists.

And this type of activity isn't limited to USA alone. Pay attention Oxford, Cambridge, ...

 

[Medstudies]

Oh and this reminds me of the growing culture: “models”: landing spots because of their names and the so called insta stars. (Heck, dress me in overpriced Chanel, add in a Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, a Birkin bag, Harry Winston diamonds, a yacht, and photoshop and I would look amazing! )

And then there are the wealthy privileged (eg T.S.) and big businesses (GM, Fannie May, Freddie Mac) who continue to overspend and then get bailouts. Or the ridiculous payouts to those who have gotten fired for misdeeds. (Google paid former search executive A.S $35 million in an exit package when he was reportedly forced to resign after a sexual assault investigation, according to court documents released Monday.) Google paid $35 million to former executive accused of sexual harassment

Some seem to feel the rules really only apply to us plebs. Heck they are usually right.

On a positive note: it’s hump day!, and like all here, I have earned my things, Ditto for my kids.

Edit: full names to initials

 

[SuziQ]

College admissions cheating scheme: 3 bizarre details from the complaint

College admissions cheating scheme: 3 bizarre details from the complaint

In an email discussing her daughter's approval to receive extra time to take the SAT, Huffman allegedly used the “Scooby Doo” phrase “Ruh Ro” in an email.

“Ruh Ro! Looks like [my daughter’s high school] wants to provide own proctor,” she allegedly wrote in an email forwarded to Singer from her daughter’s high school counselor.

In one exchange, however, one of Singer’s clients says her daughter is “not stupid” and purportedly proceeds to ask: “How do you do this without telling the kids what you’re doing?”

.....

These are the ones I feel sorry for, the ones that thought they got in on their own.

I bet there were some heated discussions in these households last night. I'm torn between having sympathy for the kids. Some obviously knew. But you can see that they were doing just fine making their own way without college. And really didn't want any part of this. Now the parents actions have ruined their kids careers.

Eta: and as you mentioned. Some had no idea at all. Great way to break your kids heart.

 

[TTF14]

I bet there were some heated discussions in these households last night. I'm torn between having sympathy for the kids. Some obviously knew. But you can see that they were doing just fine making their own way without college. And really didn't want any part of this. Now the parents actions have ruined their kids careers.

Eta: and as you mentioned. Some had no idea at all. Great way to break your kids heart.

Yeah, the two sitting on rowing machines had to have asked, "why am I doing this?"

 

[K_Z]

This whole scam is the uber-wealthy version of "affirmative action" in admissions, IMO.

It's nothing new-- has been going on for at least 100 years in academia. Probably longer.

I'd bet that if anyone looked at what areas of study the "scam kids" went into, that the overwhelming number would be humanities, social sciences, or fine arts (such as singing and acting).

The hard sciences, IMO, function largely as a separate system from the humanities. Far more performance based meritocracies. Pretty hard, even with curves and grade inflation, to fake or cheat your way thru organic chemistry, physics, differential calculus, etc. Not impossible, though. Just less likely. Look at the number of fake and plagiarized scientific journal articles in the past 20 years. Sobering.

However, for those wealthy folks who want to buy an admission, it's rarely because their little darling is seeking a degree in math or the hard sciences. They are looking for the prestige of the "University of I'm so Important" label, social capital, connections. Etc. These are people who eat, breathe, and sleep "elitist entitlement" life philosophies. Sadly, most of them have passed on this "elitist entitlement" philosophy to their offspring-- many of whose greatest accomplishments are collecting Instagram and YouTube followers.

 

[Inthedetails]

FWIW, while out and about doing errands this morning, this scandal is the talk of the neighborhood....and people are universally MAD. Plenty of current events rile people up, but this is the angriest I've seen in general conversation.

jmo

 

[Inthedetails]

Well... they did get the best & brightest. The best cheaters & the brightest liars. Demonstrates real motivation. Gumption. Go-getter-ness.
Besides cheating worthy students out of those seats, this fiasco really dumbs down an Ivy-Leage education. No one will know for sure if the spot was bought or earned.

Yep.

And this is why I'm hopeful the scandal will be taken seriously, though my hunch is it will be blamed on the "one" scammer, Rick whateverhisnameis rather than addressed as a systemic problem.

jmo

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

More than 750 families benefited from college cheating scheme, ringleader says

"They want guarantees, they want this thing done. They don't want to me messing around with this thing," William Rick Singer said.

 

[TTF14]

Will there be more arrests coming?

 

[Inthedetails]

This whole scam is the uber-wealthy version of "affirmative action" in admissions, IMO.

It's nothing new-- has been going on for at least 100 years in academia. Probably longer.

Snipped.

Using connections and influence has been going on forever and likely will continue. That's actually understandable (and a reason to get in there and make your own connections and help each other out).

But to bribe and cheat and outright lie (like about the sports) is what sets this apart from the good-ol'-boy type network. This level of deceit is something new, imo. And if it's not new, well, it's time for it to end.

jmo

 

[dancemom]

Snipped.

Using connections and influence has been going on forever and likely will continue. That's actually understandable (and a reason to get in there and make your own connections and help each other out).

But to bribe and cheat and outright lie (like about the sports) is what sets this apart from the good-ol'-boy type network. This level of deceit is something new, imo. And if it's not new, well, it's time for it to end.

jmo

Having someone take the ACT or SAT for your kid (or changing their score) is pretty blatant cheating. This affects all applicants: not only does it take a position in a school away from a deserving student, it artificially inflates expectations and averages for test scores. (An honestly earned 30 doesn't look as impressive beside a paid-for 34 or 35.)

I know that this is a small number of students overall, but I think it could bring to light many more ways that students are fudging on college applications. I would love to see this scandal become a catalyst to bring more transparency to the entire process.