Feds uncover large-scale college entrance exam cheating plot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the guy with the fake foundation/consulting business is pleading guilty today. Not clear if he is going to cooperate in exchange for a lighter sentence. There is someone who worked for him who is cooperating with the FBI.

More is going to come out.

[Anonymous]

The lengths these folks went to for their dumb seeming offspring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted but am posting again. Imagine you are a kid who worked really, really hard throughout middle school and high school. You made sacrifices socially, economically, or whatever, to get the best grades you could. You studied like a maniac for the SAT, ACT, etc. You rewrote and rewrote and rewrote your college application essays. You did what you could to earn good letters of recommendation. You apply to schools, and you hope you have as reasonable a chance as anyone else, based on the school's admission stats. Then you are rejected from your top choices.

Then you find out your spot was taken because of bribes.

I would be furious. And made much more cynical.

Same thing for all non-famous, non-rich parents.

It was also make me question the value of a college degree and of elite colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the guy with the fake foundation/consulting business is pleading guilty today. Not clear if he is going to cooperate in exchange for a lighter sentence. There is someone who worked for him who is cooperating with the FBI.

More is going to come out.

He is CW-1.

CW-1 has agreed to plead guilty in the United States District Court for the District of
Massachusetts to racketeering conspiracy, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
1962(d); money laundering conspiracy, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
1956(h); conspiracy to defraud the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Section 371; and obstruction of justice, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
1512(c). CW-1 has been cooperating with the government’s investigation since in or about late
September 2018, in the hope of obtaining leniency when he is sentenced. In or about October
2018, after he began cooperating with the government, CW-1 alerted several subjects of the
investigation to its existence, resulting in the obstruction of justice charge to which he has agreed
to plead guilty. Information provided by CW-1 has been corroborated by, among other things,
Court-authorized wiretaps, e-mails, documents, consensual recordings, and interviews of other
witnesses, including cooperating witnesses.

[Anonymous]

On a related topic—- how would SAT administrators know if someone else took the test for someone else? How is this regulated? I know the proctors in these cases changed answers/took the test for the accused kids. But in the regular world where proctors don’t know the students, is there some photo I’d check or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOOM! Georgetown coach took almost $900k! One kid never played tennis at all.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1142876/download

Between 2012 and 2018, SINGER paid a Georgetown tennis coach bribes, falsely
labeled as "consulting" fees, totaling more than $2.7 million. SINGER typically made the
payments from one of the KWF charitable accounts and sent them to the coach via U.S. Mail,
including in several instances to the coach's residence in Falmouth, Massachusetts. ^
53. In exchange for the bribes, the Georgetown coach designated approximately 12
applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play tennis
competitively, thereby facilitating their admission to the imiversity.

I'm not from around here, so I wonder if someone can, please, enlighten me. Doesn't the coach report to the athletic director, and, most importantly, don't they need to produce results in their sport? If you admit kids who don't even play your game, who's going to compete on behalf of your school?
I can -- sorta -- see how in a team sport you can always claim so and so was injured and was benched/replaced. But for an individual sport, like tennis, in a preppy school like Georgetown? Plus, when you apply as an athlete, don't you have to submit proof of your athletic accomplishments (official tournament results, ratings, etc)?
Baffling. Utterly baffling.

My son is an athletic recruit at an academically elite university. I'm not sure that the admissions office really looks at the athletic accomplishments of those kids on the coach's requested list. I don't think (prior to this case anyway) they'd second guess a coach's determination re who will help the team. In our experience the coach tells potential recruits what athletic milestones they need to hit to secure the coach's interest, and what academic thresholds they need to reach in order for the coach to feel reasonably certain he can get them through admissions.

I agree though that it is hard to imagine how someone like a tennis coach--as opposed to a sport like lacrosse or football that have tons of kids per team--could hope to have a successful program if any kids on his list weren't legit athletes. Unless maybe he had carte blanche to get in as many kids as he wanted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On a related topic—- how would SAT administrators know if someone else took the test for someone else? How is this regulated? I know the proctors in these cases changed answers/took the test for the accused kids. But in the regular world where proctors don’t know the students, is there some photo I’d check or something?

^^ID

[Anonymous]

I am shocked that people are shocked. It happens everywhere. Or else why would people who have good public options pull their children from great privates and make huge donations to HRCS in DC? When SAT and AP exams are being administered in the students’ school, it is not at all difficult to manipulate tge results, get 5’s in every exam and ensure the student gets credit for all those courses in university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is caltech the only school left in the country that isn’t sketchy?

State schools have their scandals.

Private’s are rocked by back doors and side doors.

It seems like caltech might be the only school in America where you can trust the admissions office

I tend to think MIT is also honest, for obvious reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sort of feel bad for the kids - in some cases they probably didn't even know this was happening, and now they are screwed.

I think Buckingham's son was totally blindsided. Also are indictments sealed until release? So did the parents in the scandal have time to prepare before this morning?

Not that I'm shedding tears for them but a LOT of them have open social media right now. Too bad proud mom is heading to the slammer.

omg the idiot son's writing sample is GOLDEN

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sort of feel bad for the kids - in some cases they probably didn't even know this was happening, and now they are screwed.

I think Buckingham's son was totally blindsided. Also are indictments sealed until release? So did the parents in the scandal have time to prepare before this morning?

Not that I'm shedding tears for them but a LOT of them have open social media right now. Too bad proud mom is heading to the slammer.

omg the idiot son's writing sample is GOLDEN

If that was my mom I wouldn't speak to her for 20 years. How...HOW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOOM! Georgetown coach took almost $900k! One kid never played tennis at all.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1142876/download

Between 2012 and 2018, SINGER paid a Georgetown tennis coach bribes, falsely
labeled as "consulting" fees, totaling more than $2.7 million. SINGER typically made the
payments from one of the KWF charitable accounts and sent them to the coach via U.S. Mail,
including in several instances to the coach's residence in Falmouth, Massachusetts. ^
53. In exchange for the bribes, the Georgetown coach designated approximately 12
applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play tennis
competitively, thereby facilitating their admission to the imiversity.

I'm not from around here, so I wonder if someone can, please, enlighten me. Doesn't the coach report to the athletic director, and, most importantly, don't they need to produce results in their sport? If you admit kids who don't even play your game, who's going to compete on behalf of your school?
I can -- sorta -- see how in a team sport you can always claim so and so was injured and was benched/replaced. But for an individual sport, like tennis, in a preppy school like Georgetown? Plus, when you apply as an athlete, don't you have to submit proof of your athletic accomplishments (official tournament results, ratings, etc)?
Baffling. Utterly baffling.

You are assuming the admission folks track the athletes after the athlete has been admitted. There is no system for that....the admission folks are on to the next year and really do not care about last years applicants. The coach/athletic department just flag/marks the application as someone they would like. Many times the bottom part of the team are not on scholarship and paying full price to attend school. This kids help the teams over GPA and graduation rates. Something that is tracked.

[Anonymous]

Who will play these two women in the tv movie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOOM! Georgetown coach took almost $900k! One kid never played tennis at all.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1142876/download

Between 2012 and 2018, SINGER paid a Georgetown tennis coach bribes, falsely
labeled as "consulting" fees, totaling more than $2.7 million. SINGER typically made the
payments from one of the KWF charitable accounts and sent them to the coach via U.S. Mail,
including in several instances to the coach's residence in Falmouth, Massachusetts. ^
53. In exchange for the bribes, the Georgetown coach designated approximately 12
applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play tennis
competitively, thereby facilitating their admission to the imiversity.

I'm not from around here, so I wonder if someone can, please, enlighten me. Doesn't the coach report to the athletic director, and, most importantly, don't they need to produce results in their sport? If you admit kids who don't even play your game, who's going to compete on behalf of your school?
I can -- sorta -- see how in a team sport you can always claim so and so was injured and was benched/replaced. But for an individual sport, like tennis, in a preppy school like Georgetown? Plus, when you apply as an athlete, don't you have to submit proof of your athletic accomplishments (official tournament results, ratings, etc)?
Baffling. Utterly baffling.

My son is an athletic recruit at an academically elite university. I'm not sure that the admissions office really looks at the athletic accomplishments of those kids on the coach's requested list. I don't think (prior to this case anyway) they'd second guess a coach's determination re who will help the team. In our experience the coach tells potential recruits what athletic milestones they need to hit to secure the coach's interest, and what academic thresholds they need to reach in order for the coach to feel reasonably certain he can get them through admissions.

I agree though that it is hard to imagine how someone like a tennis coach--as opposed to a sport like lacrosse or football that have tons of kids per team--could hope to have a successful program if any kids on his list weren't legit athletes. Unless maybe he had carte blanche to get in as many kids as he wanted?

Maybe that’s why he’s at URI now instead of Georgetown?

[Anonymous]

These prices make the parents seem cheap and pathetic. My friend, who's a nice and smart enough guy, had his parents help him get into Stanford in the 90s after donating $30 million for a new building.