College administration bribery scandal

kwanfan1818 said:
You don't have to be from a privileged family to be valued or not based on how much you "win", and often parents' definition of "win" is extremely limited.
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www.marcusbuckingham.com

The Speech I Never Intended to Give

Some of you know this already. Others of you do not. Except for friends and family and close colleagues, I’ve stayed silent.
www.marcusbuckingham.com www.marcusbuckingham.com

He is Jane Buckingham’s ex and she hired someone who take his sons test. His kid didn’t even know wanted to do it for daughter.

What he had to say was the hardest part was it was the mom basically saying to the kid I don’t see you. Your not enough.

That’s why I feel comparing Suni and Olivia Jade is so unfair I mean most of us won’t be able to reach that level. Olivia Jade had her own success even as a kid and that wasn’t enough for mom and dad.

I liked to about what he said about space making as parents. What he felt his parents did well.
 
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I dropped some things off at the house of a (volunteer) colleague. I looked up his address online and came across several articles about his super gifted daughter. College at age 13, triple major, written several novels by her mid teens, etc. I was chatting with her dad briefly in their driveway when she sneered at him for making her late for something. In those 15 seconds, she seemed like a 15-16 year old drama queen. I imagine that must be even harder to deal with since she really is a talented genius who might change the world. I'm sure she is normally the delightful person described in the many articles about her, but those few seconds kind of broke the spell. I tend to be awed by young people with great talent.
 
KCC said:
I dropped some things off at the house of a (volunteer) colleague. I looked up his address online and came across several articles about his super gifted daughter. College at age 13, triple major, written several novels by her mid teens, etc. I was chatting with her dad briefly in their driveway when she sneered at him for making her late for something. In those 15 seconds, she seemed like a 15-16 year old drama queen. I imagine that must be even harder to deal with since she really is a talented genius who might change the world. I'm sure she is normally the delightful person described in the many articles about her, but those few seconds kind of broke the spell. I tend to be awed by young people with great talent.
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The rebelling teenager rears her head. That might be hard for parents to deal with or it could have been a moment.
 
Dropout rates also have to be looked at in the context of what constitutes a "dropout". Some data sets classify a student as a "dropout" if they don't enrol for a year or more. But those students could come back after a year, or could enrol at a different post-secondary institution and continue their education there. Those kinds of transitions aren't always tracked.
 
overedge said:
Dropout rates also have to be looked at in the context of what constitutes a "dropout". Some data sets classify a student as a "dropout" if they don't enrol for a year or more. But those students could come back after a year, or could enrol at a different post-secondary institution and continue their education there. Those kinds of transitions aren't always tracked.
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If transfers are counted as dropouts, then the data is definitely inflated.
 
Debbie S said:
If transfers are counted as dropouts, then the data is definitely inflated.
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There is a lot of variation in how different states and different systems calculate these numbers. Which is extremely frustrating in trying to compare them.

FWIW dropouts (either "step outs" who are going to return eventually, or those who never come back) tend to happen more often at the end of the student's first semester and at the end of their first full year. Dropout rates are generally lower after students go into their second year, either because they've figured out what they're doing, or because they're reaching the point where they've invested so much already that they might as well finish.
 
www.nytimes.com

2 Parents Are Convicted in the Varsity Blues Admissions Trial (Published 2021)

John Wilson, a private equity financier, and Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, were the first people to stand trial in the federal investigation.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

The jury didn't believe their claim that they were duped.

Mr. Abdelaziz and Mr. Wilson were both convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud; Mr. Wilson alone was found guilty of additional fraud and bribery charges and of filing a false tax return for taking a deduction for a payment that the government called a bribe.

They face up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charges. But experts said that under the sentencing guidelines they would get far less, perhaps less than three years for Mr. Abdelaziz and less than five years for Mr. Wilson.
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The article indicates that at least one of them will appeal.
 
Susan1 said:
www.goodhousekeeping.com

Hallmark Releases a Shocking Statement About Lori Loughlin's Return to 'When Calls the Heart'

There's a lot of confusion surrounding her reprisal of Abigail Stanton.
www.goodhousekeeping.com www.goodhousekeeping.com
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I was reading some of the comments, and most were praising Lori. Okey dokey.... Someone even mentioned "forgiveness" too. Hmm, it's not my position to "forgive" her for her crimes. Her crimes had nothing to do with me. But can someone really be "forgiven" if they fought as loudly as they could to claim their (fake) innocence? I totally understand wanting to help your children out, and you get carried away with your parenting. But if I had done something like that, I would have done what Felicity Huffman did. Just own your mistake, admit it, take your lumps and move on. It's easy to forgive and forget something like that. Just show contrition. Lori didn't. She has no character. I'll never watch her again because of her lack of character and her dishonesty. She is a poor role model and someone not to be emulated because of that. Not because she tried to buy her daughters' USC admissions.
 
www.justice.gov

California Parents Agree to Plead Guilty in College Admissions Case

BOSTON – Two Silicon Valley parents have agreed to plead guilty in connection with their involvement in the college admissions case.
www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
The Colburns will plead guilty to their roles in a scheme to defraud The College Board by paying William “Rick” Singer $25,000 to bribe Igor Dvorskiy, a corrupt test administrator, to allow Mark Riddell, a corrupt test “proctor,” to secretly correct the Colburns’ son’s SAT exam answers to obtain a fraudulently inflated score....

Under the terms of the plea agreements, each of the defendants has agreed to sentences, subject to the Court’s approval, of eight weeks in prison, one year of supervised release with 100 hours of community service and a fine of $12,500.
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www.justice.gov

Investigations of College Admissions and Testing Bribery Scheme

www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
The chart on this webpage shows the sentences that the prosecution asked for and those were actually imposed.
Granted, the judge(s) probably wanted to minimize incarcerations during you-know-what, but it seems to me that these defendants got off lightly. Blue-collar defendants in fraud or theft cases involving similar sums would probably have received much stiffer sentences, even if they were first-time offenders.
 
Our local paper did a follow-up on this. Apparently, the last parent to be charged has pled guilty. (But there are still two cases running through the court system so I'm not sure why they report it as over?)

College admissions scandal: Here’s the tally after final parent pleads guilty​

Plea marks string of convictions in Varsity Blues case

www.mercurynews.com

College admissions scandal: Here’s the tally after final parent pleads guilty

Just one of the dozens of wealthy parents who worked with corrupt “Varsity Blues” admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer of California avoided conviction.
www.mercurynews.com www.mercurynews.com

Some excerpts:

Thirty-eight convictions and one presidential pardon later, the saga of a college admissions scandal that captured America’s disdain for privilege is all but over.

With this week’s guilty plea of a Newport Beach warehousing company owner, federal prosecutors wrapped up the last of their “Varsity Blues” cases against dozens of wealthy parents from the Bay Area to Hollywood and Wall Street who worked with a corrupt California consultant to cheat their kids into elite universities.

...
Of the 39 parents charged with employing Singer, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, for exam cheating and phony athletic recruitment schemes, just one avoided conviction: Miami investor Robert Zangrillo, whom President Trump pardoned in January on his last day in office.


“The parents never had a chance,” said Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles lawyer and former federal prosecutor who has followed the case. “The case was bulletproof.”

...
One other parent charged in a related case still faces trial in April. Amin Khoury, the son of a rich energy company executive, was indicted in September 2020 on charges of paying $200,000 in 2014 to bribe a former Georgetown University coach to admit his daughter as a tennis player. That coach, Gordon Ernst, who also worked with Singer and some convicted Varsity Blues parents, pleaded guilty in October and will be sentenced in March.

Perhaps the crescendo of the case — the sentencing for the ringleader himself, Singer — has not yet been scheduled.

Apart from Khoury, the only other figure charged in the scandal still fighting charges is former University of Southern California water polo coach Jovan Vavic, scheduled for trial in March on charges of working with Singer to fraudulently flag students as team recruits.

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Of parents already sentenced, the lightest was one day in prison for former ASGN Inc. CEO Peter Dameris, who pleaded guilty in June 2020 to paying Singer $300,000 to bribe Ernst into getting a son into Georgetown.

The longest sentence was nine months in prison for former Pimco CEO Douglas Hodge of Laguna Beach, who pleaded guilty in October 2019 to paying Singer $850,000 to get four of his kids into USC and Georgetown as fake athletic recruits.
 
I think that bribery in colleges and universities should not exist because specialists in these educational institutions are trained, and if they do not know anything, can they help people or provide quality services?
 
mccraigmon said:
I think that bribery in colleges and universities should not exist because specialists in these educational institutions are trained, and if they do not know anything, can they help people or provide quality services?
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Deciding on admission is a complicated process with a lot of different information to take into account. It's especially difficult when there are more qualified applicants than seats. People making admission decisions are usually very well trained. They're not being offered bribes because they "know nothing" and can be influenced. They're offered bribes because that's one way to get a student admitted ahead of other equally qualified students.
 
mccraigmon said:
I think that bribery in colleges and universities should not exist because specialists in these educational institutions are trained, and if they do not know anything, can they help people or provide quality services?
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Definitely not. I've never even thought about bribing because I want to become a qualified professional. I've always wanted to be a psychologist. Before I enrolled, I learned all about how to get a psychology degree. Every person should have a goal to go to.
 
3.5 years while the kids who were not admitted because rich briby kids got in instead could be affected for life. BS
 
Rick Singer Leaves Prison and Plans to Resume College Counseling

Now Singer is finishing out his sentence in a halfway house in the Los Angeles area, the Journal reported, plotting his new company, ID Future Stars, from there.

He said people continued to seek his services even when he was in prison.

“They care about their kids,” he told the Journal. “They want, in my opinion, the best person possible to work with them. They trusted me and knew that we knew things better than everybody else.”
 
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Not for me. After a slight delay, I'm getting the "Subscribe" screen, and I don't see a "No thanks"/"Continue" link or a way to "X" out the window.
 
Vagabond said:
The gift link doesn't work for me. :(
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Not sure why. :( Anyway, a brief excerpt from that story:
  • A Times investigation found that USC quietly offered wealthy and well-connected families an alternative path to admission with much lower academic expectations and an acceptance rate of 85% to 90%.
  • Internal records show USC fundraisers anticipated significant donations from families of those admitted and, in some cases, became enraged when money failed to materialize.
  • When the Varsity Blues scandal threatened to expose the secret system, the university and some employees involved took steps to keep the details hidden, an effort that continued through at least 2022.
 
The Mater Dei HS (a very prominent Catholic athletic powerhouse that sends many students to USC's sports teams) was in the other story:
  • Mater Dei routinely sends athletes to fill the ranks of USC sports teams, but it also delivered at least half a dozen affluent students who were admitted through the athletic department but never appeared on team rosters.
  • Former Mater Dei President Patrick Murphy was deeply involved in pushing for students and others connected to the Catholic school to be admitted to the university as walk-on athletes.
  • In one case, records show Murphy promised USC that a family would donate $2 million if their son were admitted. Murphy denies making such a pledge.
 
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