Operation Varsity Blues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The documentary is now available on Netflix! Its a must watch for DCUM!! From the documentary its clear that prestigious universities accept students who are rich, well connected, celebrities or children of celebrities, politicians, businessmen etc. very few get in on pure merit. Most are average students like Jared Kushner. Also seems like just any applicant can lie about their race/ethnicity to get a leg up. Also, Rick Singer is just one person who was caught in the admissions scandal. There must be many more Rick Singers who have not been caught!!
But since most people are obsessed with prestige the parents and students are not going to stop trying to get into these prestigious colleges!

OP, I watched, and while it was interesting, there's no evidence that "most are average students like Jared Kushner." What we know is that "some are average students like Jared Kushner, whose dad gave $2.5 million to Harvard before he got in." And the documentary is making the point not that connected people get in, but that they were convinced (perhaps rightly) that their kids wouldn't get in without the illegal side door, which Rick Singer shared with them. The difference between them and me is that they could pay what Singer was asking, and that they were corrupt enough to do it.

I was struck by how much the athletic recruiting aspect of these schools is open to corruption. (And how much athletics is its own center of power, even if it's not the main mission of higher ed. Since the school newspaper, the orchestra, and the film club aren't money makers, they don't have the pull to bring in superstars in those areas, outside of the normal admissions process.)

Is $2.5 million enough? Maybe the promise of more later? It just doesn't seem like that much. Not that I'm a fan or anything, I'm just surprised by that small amount.

[Anonymous]

Singer is a gaslighting sociopath and a master manipulator. He created a market for his business by telling parents their kids weren't good enough. They were egotistical and rich enough to fall for it. I feel like John Vandemoer got shafted by Stanford and its Athletic Department. You know they definitely knew what was going on. Also, the USC coaches and Assistant Athletic Director pleading Not Guilty? It seems so foolish. I wonder how much more time they'll serve than if they'd pled Guilty.

[Anonymous]

Wealthy families have advantages on almost everything. That's part of the capitalism we buy into. Wealthy people leave wealth to their offspring, and the children inherit the advantage. Unless you like Marx's communism theory to confisticate private properties and have class wars like Solvets had, this inequality will always exist in society.
Probably if you still can see some of the ordinary background people you know around have made to the class of wealthy, then the society is still ok, and the upward mobility still exists if you work hard enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can an applicant lie about their race/ethnicity? Isn’t their actual race noted in the high school transcript, or counselor’s recommendation?

Worked out well for Elizabeth Warren

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can an applicant lie about their race/ethnicity? Isn’t their actual race noted in the high school transcript, or counselor’s recommendation?

Worked out well for Elizabeth Warren

LOL, I like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book "The Price of Admissions" thoroughly explains the donor/legacy/celebrity/athlete preferences in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools and was published back in 2007. And that's just the non-illegal ways people get in. When you consider the low % admitted and that a majority of those fit one of the hook categories, there are very, very few kids who get in on their own academic merits alone.

+1

Part of why the parents in this area are so stuck their kids playing sports, even if they suck.

This part is true and we all know it. All the kids in hs feel like they have to do a sport for their resumes. If colleges weren't so hard to get into it would be like my days in hs in the 70s where people didn't care about the sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book "The Price of Admissions" thoroughly explains the donor/legacy/celebrity/athlete preferences in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools and was published back in 2007. And that's just the non-illegal ways people get in. When you consider the low % admitted and that a majority of those fit one of the hook categories, there are very, very few kids who get in on their own academic merits alone.

+1

Part of why the parents in this area are so stuck their kids playing sports, even if they suck.

This part is true and we all know it. All the kids in hs feel like they have to do a sport for their resumes. If colleges weren't so hard to get into it would be like my days in hs in the 70s where people didn't care about the sports.

Are you stupid? Stop, rhetorical question, for what it's worth mouth breather, many kids "do a sport" because they like it and it teaches many things like hard work, discipline and humility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book "The Price of Admissions" thoroughly explains the donor/legacy/celebrity/athlete preferences in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools and was published back in 2007. And that's just the non-illegal ways people get in. When you consider the low % admitted and that a majority of those fit one of the hook categories, there are very, very few kids who get in on their own academic merits alone.

+1

Part of why the parents in this area are so stuck their kids playing sports, even if they suck.

This part is true and we all know it. All the kids in hs feel like they have to do a sport for their resumes. If colleges weren't so hard to get into it would be like my days in hs in the 70s where people didn't care about the sports.

First, people did care about sports in the 70s. Second, if your kid is doing a sport she hates because you told her she needs to for college, you are parenting wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can an applicant lie about their race/ethnicity? Isn’t their actual race noted in the high school transcript, or counselor’s recommendation?

If you get 23 & Me, you can find that 1% or less of an under-represented minority to check on the application.

One has to be a quarter (25%) of a minority to check a race box.

That’s not true. Back when I was in school you only needed to show 12% Native American blood to get a full ride to any state school (western state). A bunch of us could do that. Plus, those with any black blood in them can claim black.

[Anonymous]

I watched it this afternoon and enjoyed it. These parents were the biggest chumps. The conversations, I died.

The documentary took the stance that social media in large part has pushed us to this point. I disagree. Elite universities have always been high desirable. Through the early 90s, if you were a legacy and went to an elite private you were in. Top schools have fundamentally changed how they build a freshman class. They still want the children of elites, and now they want the children of 1st generation college students (preferable POC, but they'll take who they can get) so the elites can appear woke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book "The Price of Admissions" thoroughly explains the donor/legacy/celebrity/athlete preferences in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools and was published back in 2007. And that's just the non-illegal ways people get in. When you consider the low % admitted and that a majority of those fit one of the hook categories, there are very, very few kids who get in on their own academic merits alone.

+1

Part of why the parents in this area are so stuck their kids playing sports, even if they suck.

This part is true and we all know it. All the kids in hs feel like they have to do a sport for their resumes. If colleges weren't so hard to get into it would be like my days in hs in the 70s where people didn't care about the sports.

Are you stupid? Stop, rhetorical question, for what it's worth mouth breather, many kids "do a sport" because they like it and it teaches many things like hard work, discipline and humility.

You are full of it. Most kids do it now because they have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book "The Price of Admissions" thoroughly explains the donor/legacy/celebrity/athlete preferences in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools and was published back in 2007. And that's just the non-illegal ways people get in. When you consider the low % admitted and that a majority of those fit one of the hook categories, there are very, very few kids who get in on their own academic merits alone.

+1

Part of why the parents in this area are so stuck their kids playing sports, even if they suck.

This part is true and we all know it. All the kids in hs feel like they have to do a sport for their resumes. If colleges weren't so hard to get into it would be like my days in hs in the 70s where people didn't care about the sports.

Are you stupid? Stop, rhetorical question, for what it's worth mouth breather, many kids "do a sport" because they like it and it teaches many things like hard work, discipline and humility.

You are full of it. Most kids do it now because they have to. [/quote]

Yep. At most private schools, students are required to do sports every season but 2 (10 out of 12 seasons in high school).

[Anonymous]

I thought the doc was well done, and uncovered a lot of issues - mainly "pay to play", of course.

I think these kinds of parents deserve to be outed. In my close in NoVA community, some of my friends have had their kid admitted through what Rick Singer called the "side door".

Everyone knows who these parents are, and feels bad for the kids - the parents clearly did not think the kids were good enough, in any regard, and had to pay to get them into a college they never would have been admitted to, if not for the payment/donation and/or sucking up to the coach. The parent who does this has no idea how obvious it is. Kids talk, even if you tell them not to - and other kids absolutely know who is a good student, and who is not - who is in what classes, and who is not. There is simply no getting around that. Of course the kid finds out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Singer is a gaslighting sociopath and a master manipulator. He created a market for his business by telling parents their kids weren't good enough. They were egotistical and rich enough to fall for it. I feel like John Vandemoer got shafted by Stanford and its Athletic Department. You know they definitely knew what was going on. Also, the USC coaches and Assistant Athletic Director pleading Not Guilty? It seems so foolish. I wonder how much more time they'll serve than if they'd pled Guilty.

+1

The parents who bribe the coaches/schools (but refuse to call it that) are, too.

[Anonymous]

The thing I found fascinating was that my guess is most of these kids could probably have gotten into reasonably good schools on their own merits - they had all the advantages to begin with and could pay full freight at lots of small privates, but certain schools were considered appropriately chi chi - bit even the top top schools in some cases, but USC, Georgetown.

It left me with a bad taste in my mouth for a lot of the schools and their big time athletics programs.