Feature: College Admissions Scandal

By Justin McCarthy-Hill on March 26

Recently a scandal has rocked the college world. Over 30 parents of college students and graduates have been accused of bribing colleges into letting their children attend. College athletic coaches accepted millions of dollars to help these children get accepted, suggesting to the college administrations that these students were “top athletes”. Once these students got to the colleges, however, they did not play the sports that they had been recruited for. Among these parents are famous Hollywood and actors William Macy (Fargo, Magnolia, Room), Felicity Huffman (Transamerica, Georgia Rule, Magnolia), and Lori Loughlin (Full House). So far, 33 parents have been charged in the scandal.

The ringleader of the whole operation was consultant William Singer, who had been working in college counseling for almost three decades. He was behind the elaborate effort to falsify scores and bribe anyone involved with admissions to big schools like USC. This scandal has proved to many Americans and foreign students looking to attend US schools that the college system is exploitable, arbitrary, and broken. There have been no charges for the students themselves because it is said that many of the students did not know the bribery was happening. This, though, seems highly unlikely to many prosecutors considering photo-shopped pictures of students in sports equipment were sent to many colleges as part of applications. Police and investigators are still gathering information on the topic, but for now this is the most important information related to the scandal.