Feds uncover large-scale college entrance exam cheating plot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college admission scandal is basically 9/11 for upper middle class white people. Haven’t seen them so upset by something in years.

This has nothing to do with “upper middle class white people,” dummy. It has to do with rich, entitled assholes.

No it has to do with UMC white peoples and Asians who have stacked the deck against the poors and are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Eh? This is pretty stupid. UMC white people and Asians probably have the most difficult time in college admissions because they are the largest groups applying to college and don't have the special hooks or minority status.

All these people nabbed in the cheating scandal were outright rich. Very rich. You have to be rich to easily write checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars just to cheat on the SAT. You only do that if the money means nothing to you. An UMC family, even with a few million net worth, is not writing 6 figure checks to cheat on the SATs. The law firm boss was pulling in an income of 10 million a year. The Abbotts in New York with their blunt smoking son have their apartment on the market for $20 million. Felicity the actress was arrested at her $35 million dollar LA house. That's the kind of wealth we're talking about. Not upper middle class making a few hundred grand a year.

My guess is this guy targeted a specific type/profile--very rich high achievers with multiple mediocre kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was stupid was they could have done it “legit”. At our private, the waalthy kids play tennis, squash, lacrosse, soccer - not crew unless a cox as it is time consuming and brutal or football unless the kicker. Not track or cross country either.

So then at college admissions time, the HS counselor will call schools on these kids behalf as their wealthy parents (we are talking generational wealth or PE or HF) have donated to the HS and HS counselor will indicate to college that wealthy parents will also donate to college. And these are for HYP, Stanford and then the rest of ivies (not Cornell), Duke - nothing less for these kids. It has gotten so obvious that $$$ and athletic recruits are being bundled as the side door in for these wealthy kids that the school will no longer publish the academic achievements of the class at graduation. Why? Because it is then so obvious to everyone that the top kids of the class are not getting into the top schools but the wealthy “athletes” are. Going to Wharton when everyone knows u took the easiest class but was “recruited”? None of these kids are at national level at their sport but recruited to HYP.

Forgot to add that most of these kids had extended time also plus of course all the prep. It is not that difficult to meet the AI - your school grades can pull the AI up so most of these kids take the easiest courses possible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college admission scandal is basically 9/11 for upper middle class white people. Haven’t seen them so upset by something in years.

This has nothing to do with “upper middle class white people,” dummy. It has to do with rich, entitled assholes.

No it has to do with UMC white peoples and Asians who have stacked the deck against the poors and are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Eh? This is pretty stupid. UMC white people and Asians probably have the most difficult time in college admissions because they are the largest groups applying to college and don't have the special hooks or minority status.

All these people nabbed in the cheating scandal were outright rich. Very rich. You have to be rich to easily write checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars just to cheat on the SAT. You only do that if the money means nothing to you. An UMC family, even with a few million net worth, is not writing 6 figure checks to cheat on the SATs. The law firm boss was pulling in an income of 10 million a year. The Abbotts in New York with their blunt smoking son have their apartment on the market for $20 million. Felicity the actress was arrested at her $35 million dollar LA house. That's the kind of wealth we're talking about. Not upper middle class making a few hundred grand a year.

My guess is this guy targeted a specific type/profile--very rich high achievers with multiple mediocre kids.

No UMC can afford to donate $500k to a HS followed by more donations to college. We are talking about people who make millions in annual income or who have net worth north of $50M

[Anonymous]

In case this hadn't been mentioned in this very long thread, here are the schools the accused parents went to:

“Gregory Abbott, Princeton ‘72
Marcia Abbott (nee Meighan), Hotchkiss School, Duke
Gamal Abdelaziz, University of Cairo, Egypt
Todd Blake, Vanderbilt ’88, University of Michigan MBA ‘93
Diane Blake, Providence College ‘86
Jane Buckingham, Horace Mann HS ’86, Duke ‘90
Gordon Caplan, Cornell ’88, Fordham University JD ‘91
I-Hsin Joey Chen
Gregory Colburn, UCLA Medical School ‘84
Amy Colburn
Robert Flaxman, University of Southern California
Manuel Henriquez, Northeastern ‘87
Elizabeth Henriquez
Douglas Hodge, Dartmouth ’79, Harvard Business School MBA ‘84
Felicia Huffman, New York University
Augustin Huneeus, UC Berkeley, Northwestern/Kellogg Business School
Bruce Isackson, UCLA ‘80
Davina Isackson, University of Miami BA ’84, MS ’86, PhD ‘91
Michelle Janavs
Elisabeth Kimmel, Stanford ’86, Harvard Law School JD ‘90
Marjorie Klapper, UCLA ‘90
Lori Loughlin, no college
Mossimo Giannulli, University of Southern California (reportedly dropped out)?
Toby MacFarlane
William McGlashan, Yale, Stanford Business School
Marci Palatella
Peter Sartorio, Arizona State Univ ‘89
Stephen Semprevivo, Harvard ’88, Harvard Business School MBA ‘94
David Sidoo, University of British Columbia ‘82
Devin Sloane
John B. Wilson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ’81, Harvard Business School MBA ‘83
Homayoun Zadeh, USC School of Dentistry DDS ’87, Univ of Connecticut PhD
Robert Zangrillo, University of Vermont, Stanford Business School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college admission scandal is basically 9/11 for upper middle class white people. Haven’t seen them so upset by something in years.

This has nothing to do with “upper middle class white people,” dummy. It has to do with rich, entitled assholes.

No it has to do with UMC white peoples and Asians who have stacked the deck against the poors and are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Eh? This is pretty stupid. UMC white people and Asians probably have the most difficult time in college admissions because they are the largest groups applying to college and don't have the special hooks or minority status.

All these people nabbed in the cheating scandal were outright rich. Very rich. You have to be rich to easily write checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars just to cheat on the SAT. You only do that if the money means nothing to you. An UMC family, even with a few million net worth, is not writing 6 figure checks to cheat on the SATs. The law firm boss was pulling in an income of 10 million a year. The Abbotts in New York with their blunt smoking son have their apartment on the market for $20 million. Felicity the actress was arrested at her $35 million dollar LA house. That's the kind of wealth we're talking about. Not upper middle class making a few hundred grand a year.

My guess is this guy targeted a specific type/profile--very rich high achievers with multiple mediocre kids.

No UMC can afford to donate $500k to a HS followed by more donations to college. We are talking about people who make millions in annual income or who have net worth north of $50M

Nobody is disputing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone explain this to me:

Once these students were admitted, how were they supposed to keep up with their coursework? Were the parents planning to bribe the professors or administrators? Did Singer continue to facilitate bribes after enrollment? What would the endgame be?

This is what I'm wondering. It's one thing to bribe your kid's way in to college, but how did they actually expect them to graduate?

It doesn't matter if they graduate, but even attending for a year or so is a decent credential while they try to figure out what to do with their lives.

It's also harder to get into some of these schools than graduate. They can also easily afford a 5-year plan, so there is time to re-take classes etc.

I went to Stanford. Believe me, there were complete idiots who managed to graduate just by picking an easy major.

And by paying people like me to do their work for them. I attended two whole classes in my time at my university as another student. They were both from wealthy families and terrible at math. My university didn't make you show ID for any tests (and still doesn't, from what I hear), you just had to write your student number on your test. The key was to stick to the larger lecture courses with 100+ students where you could just blend in. I know someone who pretended to be another student in the lab portion of a biology course with only 35 other students. Just thinking about doing that would make me anxious.

Trust me, cheating is still rampant in college.

I'm floored you actually posted this! You should start an AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is interesting is that exactly 50 names were given up. I am sure he selected those names with purpose and kept off hundreds that he wanted protected. I think the lawsuit should demand all the names.

He has given up 750. The US attorney cherry picked the biggest names at the beginning. The other 750 will come out in time as the investigation continues.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-cheating-mastermind-says-he-helped-nearly-800-families-admissions-n982666

It does not say the other names will come out. It could have been part of Singer’s deal to give up a small number and let him protect certain hundreds of other people.

[Anonymous]

I must be extremely naive but it would never occur to me that people would pay someone to take their SATs or bribe a proctor or bribe coaches. I sort of still cannot believe it.

[Anonymous]

Phil Mickelson admitted using Singer's company "to help guide them through the admissions process" but he denies paying anyone off. Why would anyone believe him at this point? Getting out ahead of it...?

[Anonymous]

https://pagesix.com/2019/03/14/lori-loughlins-daughters-drop-out-of-usc-after-admissions-scandal/

Olivia Jade — who said last year she didn’t “really care about school” but wanted the “experience” of “partying” — was aboard the yacht of a USC board of trustees member on spring break when her mom was charged in the scheme Tuesday.
Since then she has been “a mess, despondent and feeling like it’s the end of the world,” a source told the website.

[Anonymous]

Operation Varsity Blues began as a result of the Philip Esformes-Medicare fraud investigation, which snagged Jerome Allen, Penn's former head basketball coach (and now his assistant coach as well). Esformes provided the original tip that led to the "Varsity Blues" investigation. Allen was coaching for the Boston Celtics when he was indicted. Beyond that, I'm not sure if there are other Boston connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I must be extremely naive but it would never occur to me that people would pay someone to take their SATs or bribe a proctor or bribe coaches. I sort of still cannot believe it.

There have been scandals in the past with other people taking SATs for students. But the coach bribing and photoshopping was new to me, too, and very shocking. Same thing with the faking of LDs and bribing of proctors.

I've been feeling pretty naive, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone explain this to me:

Once these students were admitted, how were they supposed to keep up with their coursework? Were the parents planning to bribe the professors or administrators? Did Singer continue to facilitate bribes after enrollment? What would the endgame be?

This is what I'm wondering. It's one thing to bribe your kid's way in to college, but how did they actually expect them to graduate?

It doesn't matter if they graduate, but even attending for a year or so is a decent credential while they try to figure out what to do with their lives.

It's also harder to get into some of these schools than graduate. They can also easily afford a 5-year plan, so there is time to re-take classes etc.

I went to Stanford. Believe me, there were complete idiots who managed to graduate just by picking an easy major.

And by paying people like me to do their work for them. I attended two whole classes in my time at my university as another student. They were both from wealthy families and terrible at math. My university didn't make you show ID for any tests (and still doesn't, from what I hear), you just had to write your student number on your test. The key was to stick to the larger lecture courses with 100+ students where you could just blend in. I know someone who pretended to be another student in the lab portion of a biology course with only 35 other students. Just thinking about doing that would make me anxious.

Trust me, cheating is still rampant in college.

I'm floored you actually posted this! You should start an AMA

Seriously, please do. Do you know what happened to the students you "helped" later in life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I must be extremely naive but it would never occur to me that people would pay someone to take their SATs or bribe a proctor or bribe coaches. I sort of still cannot believe it.

Do you live in the United States? Do you watch the news?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I must be extremely naive but it would never occur to me that people would pay someone to take their SATs or bribe a proctor or bribe coaches. I sort of still cannot believe it.

Do you live in the United States? Do you watch the news?

+1. There is also documented cheating on these tests by international students.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fifteen-chinese-nationals-charged-fraud-scheme

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/sat-testing-in-asia-cancelled-in-cheating-scandal/3156655.html

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sat-exam-leaked-20180827-story.html