The world of college admissions has been forever changed, after the scandal involving major Hollywood celebrities has come to light. This controversy includes wealthy business owners, and other famous people, bribing various officials involved in the college admissions process. Some also faked that their children were high level recruits in order to get them into high level colleges. After all of this came out to the public, major reforms were taken to ensure nothing like this would happen again. These changes are absolutely warranted because it is important to review every applicant equally during admissions. In the aftermath of the college admissions scandal, many institutions are doing the right thing by strengthening their admissions process because of the way the children of wealthy parents were given advantages over other deserving students.
Why The Scandal Is A Problem
For many students around the country, they worked so hard throughout their high school career to get into the college of their dreams. Unfortunately, some of their spots were taken away by these wealthy children and their parents. It is not fair to the deserving students who have earned the grades and credentials to get into these prestigious schools that are involved in the scandal. While academics are the primary focus of college, for many, sports are also a major part in their college experience. Many parents also faked that their children were high-level college recruits. The bribery and lying once again takes away opportunities from deserving athletes who have been training their whole life to play at a college level. Valuable spots were taken on these teams which in the end, hurt the importance and level at which the team is playing at.
Who Was Involved
This scandal involves many high-level celebrities and other wealthy business owners. One of the main women at the front of the scandal is Lori Loughlin, known for Full House and Fuller House. As reported by CNN, Loughlin and her husband, famous designer Mossimo, paid up to $500,000 to get both of their daughters into the University of Southern California. They claimed they were paying the money to a charity, but that was not true. The famous parents also lied about their daughters being high-level crew recruits. They assumed they would not be caught because they were celebrities, but they were rightfully punished for their involvement. Although many individuals were caught within the lies of the scandal, there was a mastermind behind it all. According to CNN, William Rick Singer, CEO of Key, a company designed for college counseling, was paid to help these wealthy families get their children into these schools. He involved himself in many different institutions, while contacting dozens of college coaches. It is very important that these people were caught in what they were doing because their children had a very unfair advantage for getting into the schools, without getting in on their own skill.
There were multiple schools affected by the scandal, which has forever dampened their credibility. These schools include the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, UCLA, and also Stanford. These are some of the best universities in the country, and it is a shame that they allowed these scandals to affect them because it makes them less appealing to many students.
How This Will Affect Admissions
After the scandal became known to the public, many called for reform. Janet Napolitano, president of UC, has said that they will strengthen the admissions process to ensure this will not happen again. This includes deepening background checks to show correct documentation and putting applications through multiple rounds of review to make sure there is not one specific person being bribed. These changes needed to be made because it is not fair for students who were more academically or athletically equipt to be denied a spot at a school just because someone paid their way in. Now, people will always question when the child of a celebrity is accepted into a college of any kind because of what has happened.
How To Punish Those Caught
Of the fifty people wrapped up in the scandal, a majority of them have been involved in court cases, possibly resulting in jail time. Some have pleaded guilty such as John Vandemoer, Stanford’s sailing coach. However, Lori Loughlin and her husband have pleaded not guilty, surprising many as there is clear proof they were involved in the scandal. These schools and celebrities have hired credible law forms to try and avoid maximum punishment.
Rightfully so, these students involved in the scandal were removed from their schools, in order for universities to show their zero-tolerance policies for acts such as the scandal. The supposed athletes have also been removed from their sports teams. This was absolutely necessary considering they were not involved in the sport, to begin with. These coaches who were bribed to accept the fake recruits were also removed from the collegiate team to make it fair to the real athletes on the team.
What Is The Best Solution?
It is important that the reforms that were proposed and are enforced throughout all colleges across the country. There needs to continue to be multiple people looking at applications and verifying their credibility before allowing them to attend the school. There should also not be any type of advantage given to students for being celebrities or the children of celebrities because that is unfair to other deserving students. As long as the colleges are consistent with their new solutions and reforms, there is no reason for this type of issue to be prevalent again.
[Image Attribute: GotCredit]