His Father Paid $400,000 to Get Him Into Georgetown. Now He’s Suing the School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are not going to give credit then they need to refund the tuition paid.

Services had been rendered. Teachers thought, he learned, he can not give back the knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with Georgetown here. I also hope Georgetown and other universities find a way to rescind or revoke the diplomas of those who graduated before the scandal broke. It doesn't matter if they successfully completed their classes or not; their admission was still fraudulent. Students are legally responsible for the accuracy of their applications and cannot disclaim knowledge of the fraudulent schemes.

I don’t get this logic at all. Isn’t the actual work more important than how one got in? I made up an overseas high school when I never attended high school (grew up in a cult that didn’t believe in education beyond middle school). I graduated with a 3.9 GPA while fully supporting myself. I realize this is different than the privileged circumstances we’re discussing here, but I still think the kids should get credit for their work. I think it’s reasonable for colleges to expel them on a case by case basis but not to strip them of degrees or credits they’ve earned.

Wait, what?! New thread pls on your life story. Sounds fascinating.

PP--Maybe someday when I have a little more time on my hands!

[Anonymous]

The student signed documents that were false. He knew perfectly well that he was not a competitive tennis player.

[Anonymous]

I think Georgetown did the right thing. There is precedent for it also. Someone faked their way through Harvard. They revoked everything. Degree class work etc etc pressed charges and the guy went to prison (not sure about the sentence part)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with Georgetown here. I also hope Georgetown and other universities find a way to rescind or revoke the diplomas of those who graduated before the scandal broke. It doesn't matter if they successfully completed their classes or not; their admission was still fraudulent. Students are legally responsible for the accuracy of their applications and cannot disclaim knowledge of the fraudulent schemes.

I don’t get this logic at all. Isn’t the actual work more important than how one got in? I made up an overseas high school when I never attended high school (grew up in a cult that didn’t believe in education beyond middle school). I graduated with a 3.9 GPA while fully supporting myself. I realize this is different than the privileged circumstances we’re discussing here, but I still think the kids should get credit for their work. I think it’s reasonable for colleges to expel them on a case by case basis but not to strip them of degrees or credits they’ve earned.

Wait, what?! New thread pls on your life story. Sounds fascinating.

PP--Maybe someday when I have a little more time on my hands!

The thing is, your life story is so unusual that you probably didn't need to lie or commit fraud to get into college. But that is what you chose to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if most of the kids in these cases do realize that their parents paid bribes?

Even if they don't, coming down hard on the kids as well as the parents is the only way to stop this nonsense. Parents should be terrified of tanking their kid's future by pulling such shenanigans.

Like umm.. if you would cut a hole in the fence of a country club and push your kid in and send him to enjoy the fabulous banquet,
nobody would really mind, not at all. Especially when they found out that the privileged kid sneaked in without paying the "dues"
whichever the dues in each case are, in this case academic dues.

Please understand, I'm not at all defending the parents or the kids in these cases or saying they didn't do something terrible. I'm just wondering if the kids knew all along or figured it out once they got to school.

In this case, he must've known, given that he was supposed to be some kind of tennis star.

If you read the charging documents you can tell this son was involved from the start. Some of the other kids clearly had no idea. That crazy lifestyle mother was doing everything she could to make her son think he was taking the ACT even though he wasn't.

I'd like to know how this is possible. Kids are responsible for filling out their college applications, so they're responsible for any lie on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going after the kids... really Jesuits... really?

The lying kids? Who aren’t kids, rather 21 years old? Um, yes.

Have you ever had a wealthy parent, do you know how hard it is to say at 17 when you fill out the applications as dependent kid... he dad I think your a lunatic im not following what you say... a wealthy parent.

I doubt you do.

Oh boo hoo! No sympathy here. My three kids filled out their own applications. If they thought I was acting like a lunatic, they would have had the gumption to say so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with Georgetown here. I also hope Georgetown and other universities find a way to rescind or revoke the diplomas of those who graduated before the scandal broke. It doesn't matter if they successfully completed their classes or not; their admission was still fraudulent. Students are legally responsible for the accuracy of their applications and cannot disclaim knowledge of the fraudulent schemes.

I don’t get this logic at all. Isn’t the actual work more important than how one got in? I made up an overseas high school when I never attended high school (grew up in a cult that didn’t believe in education beyond middle school). I graduated with a 3.9 GPA while fully supporting myself. I realize this is different than the privileged circumstances we’re discussing here, but I still think the kids should get credit for their work. I think it’s reasonable for colleges to expel them on a case by case basis but not to strip them of degrees or credits they’ve earned.

Wait, what?! New thread pls on your life story. Sounds fascinating.

PP--Maybe someday when I have a little more time on my hands!

The thing is, your life story is so unusual that you probably didn't need to lie or commit fraud to get into college. But that is what you chose to do.

True-it was dumb, but it had no impact on my admission (the only transcript I submitted was from the coursework I completed at a community college in addition to my GED). I was already accepted, I just was too embarrassed to not put a high school name on the form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are not going to give credit then they need to refund the tuition paid.

Services had been rendered. Teachers thought, he learned, he can not give back the knowledge.

Come on. The knowledge is pretty much useless. We know that. The degree is what you need. The piece of paper.

[Anonymous]

Even if they let him transfer with his courses, I'm fairly certain an expulsion will be on the new school's transcript, will it not? I thought things like plagiarism and expulsion for sexual assault or cheating, etc. stay somewhere in your file or transcript?

[Anonymous]

Not only was he forced to drop out of Georgetown but his father was just sentenced to four months in prison.

Semprevivo getting 4 months prison, $100K fine, 2 years supervised release, 500 hours community service #collegeadmissionsscandal

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/father-faces-judgment-bribing-sons-georgetown-65871989

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I support him. The schools are doing nothing to take ownership of their role in all this corruption other than throwing the coaches under the bus. I have no doubt that the coaches were led to believe if they had open recruitment spots they could go ahead and accept cash for them as long as the recruits families had big pockets and would probably donate to the school.

even if he signed his own application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now if the dad had cut the 400k check straight to Georgetown this kid would be wined and dined by the development office. The whole thing is sick and corrupt.

Yup. It's illegal bribery to get an unqualified kid in vs. legal bribery to get an unqualified kid in.

I'm with ya that the line is a fine one and we should eliminate the legal bribery, but that doesn't change a thing about illegal bribery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going after the kids... really Jesuits... really?

The lying kids? Who aren’t kids, rather 21 years old? Um, yes.

Have you ever had a wealthy parent, do you know how hard it is to say at 17 when you fill out the applications as dependent kid... he dad I think your a lunatic im not following what you say... a wealthy parent.

I doubt you do.

I do, because I have slightly crazy wealthy parents. At some point, you are a grown up and you have to act like one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with Georgetown here. I also hope Georgetown and other universities find a way to rescind or revoke the diplomas of those who graduated before the scandal broke. It doesn't matter if they successfully completed their classes or not; their admission was still fraudulent. Students are legally responsible for the accuracy of their applications and cannot disclaim knowledge of the fraudulent schemes.

I don’t get this logic at all. Isn’t the actual work more important than how one got in? I made up an overseas high school when I never attended high school (grew up in a cult that didn’t believe in education beyond middle school). I graduated with a 3.9 GPA while fully supporting myself. I realize this is different than the privileged circumstances we’re discussing here, but I still think the kids should get credit for their work. I think it’s reasonable for colleges to expel them on a case by case basis but not to strip them of degrees or credits they’ve earned.

So what is the point of punishing those who cheated to get in? As long as they get away with it for four years, they're scot-free, but if they get caught before they get their diplomas, then the hammer comes down? That makes no sense either.

These kids could not have gotten in on their own merit, and they took spaces away from other kids. Maybe kids like you were, or like I was, or like a bunch of other kids whose parents did not or do not have the resources to cheat, lie, and steal a place from someone else. Lots of kids who deserve to get in -- and who also could have done the work -- got cheated out of a potential slot by all these students whose rich parents were willing to pay a fortune to guarantee admittance. I think there is a ton wrong with our gameable admissions systems, but I'm absolutely opposed to rewarding cheaters just because their cheats weren't discovered until they'd already gotten the piece of paper.

It is sensible that Georgetown asked the boy to leave. But stripping him of his credits, the coursework actually completed on his own merit too? 3.12 is perfectly decent. That's a B average, isn't it? It seems a bit vindictive to me. Just allow him to transfer his credits to another school so people can get on with life.

It's rather damning on the universities in a way that a low performer in high school can still pass through Georgetown with a respectable GPA.

I don’t know about Georgetown officials, but I’m not inclined to afford him the presumption that his application was his only fraudulent act, and that everything else about his college years has been completed on his own merit. Obviously daddy didn’t bribe people to make sure the kid got 3.5 or higher, but, at this point, why would anyone assume that all of his coursework was legitimate?