A student finishes high school with top honors in their class. They apply for the best schools, hoping they will get accepted into the school of their dreams.
Sadly, that acceptance letter never comes. All of the open spots have been taken up by students who were a better fit for the school. That student should have done better, otherwise, they would have gotten accepted... right?
Wrong.
This week, a massive college scandal has come out to the public. According to NBC NEWS, Nearly 800 Parents are connected in a to using their wealth, rather than their child's cognitive abilities, as a means to put their children into Ivy League schools. Prestigious institutions like Yale, Georgetown, and USC have all been found complicit in accepting bribes in amounts up to $6 million dollars to allow their children to attend.
It did not matter what grades the students had, or the number of deserving students who were bumped out of the admissions cycle. All that mattered was the amount of money given to the school.
The probe so far has found 750 families using their money to get their kids into schools, rather than the scholastic merit of the students themselves.
Naturally, outrage has begun to permeate throughout the college discourse. Questions are being raised and re-raised as to what was going on to allow this to happen. Who is responsible? Who are the children who benefited? Who was shafted as a result?
As the weeks go on, more information is going to come out as to how these "prestigious" universities allowed completely unethical methods in getting these students admitted. It will be very interesting to see how much further this scandal goes. I'm willing to bet there will be more names that come out, as well as more schools. (Update: More names have come out)
That is, of course, if the media keeps up with the story.
There is a very good possibility that this scandal could get buried in the press. While this story is a hot button topic right now, another simple story could make major news outlets look away from this scandal and onto another.
Luckily, the internet is full of past, current, and future college alums who see this as a slap in the face to all of the nights that were sacrificed to studying for a good grade. And they're right in feeling that way - who wouldn't, seeing kids with rich parents pay for their place in the school, while you worked your butt off for your hard-earned place?
If all it takes is a large sum of money to get into college, it simply becomes a game of who in the small group is wealthier than the other. One last question, Are the degrees that were obtained in ill gotten ways still valid? Can it be proven that the students actually did the work required for a degree? Luckily, a lot of people other than me want that question answered as well.
