My name is Stacy Teicher Khadaroo and I am an education writer for The Christian Science Monitor, an international news organization (see www.csmonitor.com for questions).
I have received permission from College Confidential to post here.
How has last year’s big admissions scandal affected you as you head into this year’s college admissions process?
I am interested in hearing from students (and parents) about how the Varsity Blues admissions scandal, and the related dialogue about fairness in college admissions, has affected your family conversations or your intended approach to selecting and applying to college. If it hasn’t affected you at all, what is top of mind for you as you head into the process this fall?
If you’d like to share your thoughts with me and possibly be interviewed for a story, please email me at teichers@csps.com. Thank you.
2 million + students start college every year. The “big admissions scandal” has, from what I see, included about 750 families over the many years it was in place. I don’t even know what I would “do” if I was concerned about it.
It does not impact what anyone I know is doing, and would not have affected me either. It does contribute to the cynicism about the college admissions process.
It has always been very clear that those with money and influence have a tremendous edge in getting their kids into the selective colleges. That Charles Kushner did what was tantamount to an advance bribe that got his son Jared Kushner into Harvard was accepted as business as usual. We meekly accept that legacy, celebrity, and development get tremendous advantage in this process. We begrudgingly accept that athletes get favoritism in admissions. That those who are truly challenged and disadvantaged socioeconomically, we understand should get consideration. Resentment, however, tends to accompany URM admissions of those who do not have the academic standing or other fore mentioned factors.
That those so privileged already, should cheat so blatantly, outright commit clear fraud to get their children into selective colleges Is shameful. People lie, cheat, steal in all sorts of situations, and clearly they would do the same to get anything they want.
Anyone admitted through fraudulent measures should be dismissed, and civil suits instigated against those directly involved in this sham. It has damaged the integrity of the process. Criminal charges are in the works and hopefully, sentences are given out to make these it clear that the consequences are severe in this cheat
Our high school guidance counselors were telling a group of mostly middle class parents to let our students take lead on the college admissions process. While I agree students should be centrally involved, the advice seems odd when other families are paying professionals to lead the effort. It seems doubly odd when you realize how complicated the process can be when schools have many different deadlines with different advantages or strings attached.
I was not shocked that families were cheating. I’ve given up on being upset that the privileged already have many advantages and also make use of every resource. What I will do differently with my second child is increase my involvement in researching options and ensuring my child is aware of all her options and the related requirements and deadlines.
Your GC is out of touch and behind the times if your student wants to be in the selective colleges application crowd. Too many always are. It took a long time before these professionals got what anyone with resources already well knew; you can practice for SAT type exams. Just going through the practice questions and getting a good night’s sleep is not good enough when you are with kids who have spent years of test prep, practice and specialty tutors to hone into the how to do better
Nowadays, it’s the private college counselors. That’s what your kid is competing against when doing his own apps or with your help. Well to do peers are paying tens of thousands of dollars starting in 8th grade to package themselves for selective colleges.
These days, it’s all for sale. Essays, tutoring, exam prep, EC experiences from research to community service. You can buy your kid a great backstory. It’s incredible the research, publications, businesses, travel, service these teenagers have on their resume. Until you see the deals. Research mentors are out there for a price. Can carry water for the poor—for a price. You can buy yourself a profile, experiences, references. All legitimately too.
But that’s not even enough. Those with money are willing to go into 6 figures to fraudulently prepare a profile. Fake athletes, crooked proctors and coaches. When you can’t go 7 figures several years ahead of time which is what Kushner legitimately did to give his son a powerful development edge at Harvard AND Cornell, you go through the likes of William “Rick” Singer for one less figure in the pay out. He’s not the only college “CON -sultant ” out there either.
So you got the school counselor telling you that your kid should lead the way when you don’t even have a grasp of what is needed for top school applications, and the kid has a full load with school, tests, ECs, college research. While his peers have a paid consultant holding their hands, maybe even doing a lot of the work. That GC is inadequate.
Honestly, it made me care much less about the brand name of the school my kid is attending this fall. But in terms of the process? Not at all. We played fair. We didn't use an adviser or consultant to help with the process. We will do the same for kid #2. My kids have plenty of financial privilege and I can see that clearly.
That said I do think this particular incident is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to questionable actions going on related to college admissions. Some legal and some likely illegal.
It’s made us more pessimistic about our son getting into a top ranked school. I would take issue with a post above that it only affected 750 families- we have no idea how many cases have not been brought into the light. It was on this site that I learned that it was common practice amongst the well heeled to pay $5000+ for a doctor’s note allowing your child to get extra time on the ACT/SAT test. As if it isn’t enough to have a private guidance counsellor, essay consultant, test prep consultant, tutor, and a test prep class at a private school. We are realistic about S2’s chances, and are planning appropriately.
Jason England is a fascinating writer, but don’t assume he was THE “Dean” of admissions (as in the big Kahuna.) As he admits elsewhere, my underscore, "I was a dean of admissions at Wesleyan University while I was there on fellowship for American Studies.
I suspect that the impact of the college admissions bribery scandal has affected college coaches and college admissions officers much more than parents & students.
P.S. Although decades ago, when I was in college the only newspaper that I read on a regular basis was The Christian Science Monitor.
The college scandal(s) has not effected my D20’s approach to college applications/admissions. If anything, it means she has to have a perfect application and do all the right things to have any chance at top colleges because the deck is already stacked against the honest, hard working applicant.
From bribing athletic coaches, to legacy preferences, development cases, paying doctors to advocate for “normal” kids getting extra time on the ACT/SAT, to families giving up custody of their children to their poor family members for reduced COA, the whole process is flawed and extremely skewed towards the wealthy and cheaters.
It’s amazing that any average, excellent applicant without hooks and wealth make it into any of the Top 20 colleges at all.
We will take a few shots in the fall but have very low expectations of any acceptances there.
It has made me more cynical of the college admission process.
While it was already well known that the rich kids had lot of advantage, with private consultants, legacy and development admits, this scandal has opened our eyes to how much the rich were able to get away with ( or Not!)
I’m not worried. There is no such thing as bad publicity, right? Haha! In seriousness though, we just visited USC because my son was given a transfer option after his freshman year. He liked it and would have no hesitation in going there, though I suspect that will not happen. I would have no hesitation in sending him there. It is an excellent school and a few rotten apples hasn’t spoiled the bunch.
No affect and I really wasn’t moved by the story when it broke. I don’t know why people were so surprised. I always assumed stars and “connected” people could buy their way into colleges and whatever they wanted in life. That’s the way the world works.
My daughter graduated in 18 and will be entering her sophomore year in college, so our application strategy was done well before this scandal. I do feel that the scandal has vindicated our college search approach and our overall belief that these “top tier” universities don’t deserve the hype that they get and that parents and students don’t deserve the stress that they encounter trying to be deemed worthy of acceptance.
She doesn’t have much tolerance for elitism, so even though we visited Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, UNC, and Wash U, none of them made the list. She focused on applying to the schools that she liked that offered the programs that she was interested in and paid no attention to what USNWR thought. Six applications, six acceptances, and a successful freshman year.
My children are done with college, but my brother has a daughter who is a senior. I thought the same for both kids that they both went to private schools and I think I could have given them better advice for what they should have been doing in terms of courses they took and how to play the admissions game. (They are both double legacies at Harvard - and frankly I think their parents are smart enough to figure this out if they want to, so I am not butting in.) The older daughter ended up at the University of Toronto and having a good experience. She had to triple major to the mix of courses she wanted. The younger daughter is considering taking a crazy senior year schedule because of not taking basic science APs she could have taken earlier.
Interestingly my younger kid had a 504 plan for extra time and keyboarding in middle school and hated it so much he dropped it in high school. There were definitely classes where the extra time would have helped. I asked the GC to mention that he had qualified for a 504, but dropped it voluntarily. I never saw what she wrote so it may or may not have made it into the letter. In any event, we were happy with his choices when spring rolled around.
I agree zero effect. There are always people with more and less money
There are always cheaters and there are always people that can afford $10,000 tutors etc. I don’t worry about what I can’t do. I tell other families to just do the best you can. I know your competing for spots but your really competing against yourself. If your essay is bad and you don’t have the energy to fix it then don’t complain about the end results.
Donations to get students admitted to the Ivies were well documented 15 or 20 years ago (see the book “The Price of Admission”). More surprising to me were the $500,000+ “donations” to schools outside the Ivies.
Directly impacted our process for D20, not really. But it has given her a different perspective on why we as parents take an active role, and the process we use. Her older sister (Colorado College '17) applied to 10 colleges, CC wasn’t even on her original list, but she was invited to their diversity open house, and it quickly jumped to the #1 spot on her list. Youngest started with MIT as #1 for several years, replaced it with Princeton after a visit there Sophomore year, then Olin. She participated in a 2 week program at Kettering University this summer, and now they are #1, because she’s more than willing to go there, and is almost assured admission with scholarship, but will still apply to Olin and Princeton fully understanding they are long shots. She now understand what “I’ll do anything in my power to help you attend the school of your choice” means in our household - it’s not that same as what it means in some of these other households.
