Financial aid is involved here too. Either the applicant and/or school lied to admissions and received financial aid.
The NYT article mentions, "At least five T.M. Landry families spoke with local law enforcement, and two more contacted the local education authorities for aid, but little changed. "
It sounds like several persons tried to blow the whistle, but it had little effect. In 2013 a whistle blower was successful in getting Landry arrested for battery of a student. However, Landry only had to pay a $50 fine and take some anger management classes, without jail time. Again, it’s likely that little changed. Hopefully, there will be more significant changes following the NYT article.
They did NOT blow the whistle on the fraud, which the five may not even be aware of at that point (if they weren’t college applicants yet). They only reported the abuses.
Without seeing the Louisiana educational authority reports and police reports, we can only guess at what is contained within them. Some of the report filers may very well include mentions of fraud, mental and physical abuse, and lack of teaching HS material… similar to what some of the students and families reported to the NYT.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to blame holistic admissions practices in this case, where transcripts were completely made up and test prep was a key part of the “curriculum” at this unaccredited private school.
Those two - HS transcript and test scores - are the “not holistic” components of every application. Colleges trust high schools to be honest and that trust was misplaced, sorely misplaced in this case.
Public schools (by and large, there are exceptions) have a bureaucracy and oversight to prevent this kind of fraud. Private schools that are accredited do too. Homeschool? Unaccredited private schools and charter schools? It’s a patchwork of regulations and oversight that goes form a lot to none at all. Colleges will have to do a lot more checking when looking at apps from non-traditional schools, I think, as they presumably do with international students.
Inside Higher Ed has an article on this today with reactions from admissions officials and others -
This makes an interesting contrast to the thread “How I know you wrote your kid’s essay”.
^^^ Inside Higher Ed article: I found that quote from a disadvantaged minority student poignant. “From a young age, I’d been taught that in order to become noteworthy, I must pimp out my pain. My accomplishments could never be the center of the story, and if my pain isn’t sensational, spectacular, or inspiring enough, it isn’t worth the attention of others.”
I would say that part of the “blame” for this, lies in holistic admissions, or at least the current version of holistic admissions that exists today.
Even for the kids that knew that fraud was occurring, an important part of the emotional abuse is being force taught at an early age, how to pimp out pain … at their URM/SES status … and the resultant loss of dignity.
^ But that requirement to pimp out pain is part and parcel of affirmative action. It’s part of the idea that URMs are not competitive on a race blind basis, that they wouldn’t have the grades, scores, experiences to be competitive due to discrimination, poverty, painful life experiences. So part of AA is the implied requirement to show or at least acknowledge how one has been impacted in order to benefit from the thumb on the scale… It’s a vicious cycle and hurtful.
Savvy college applicants - or in this case their school headmaster - will take advantage of any known college preferences no? Elite college wants to see leadership, lead the clubs, start a charity. It wants rose-from-adversity students, emphasize that. It’s easier to get in if you are a recruited athlete? Start fencing/rowing/whatever programs. It wants rigor? Take a bunch of APs.
Etc.
But those kids’ tough life stories wouldn’t have gotten them in without the amazing (apparently fake) transcripts and ACT scores and recommendations.
Yes, reading from some of the information put out on the Harvard lawsuit, I was struck by the fact that Fitzsimmons said something to the effect that an URM needed to show in their application, how their URM status affected them personally, otherwise, AO’s were told to not weight it heavily. Talk about having to pimp out your pain !
Personally, I believe that AA/holistic admissions is valuable, but clearly it can and should be improved. For starters, more transparency, rather than a black box, and the simple acknowledgement that the process can indeed be improved would be helpful.
@havesomeheart - the article you refer to:
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2018/09/21/stop-exploiting-my-narrative/
…is a good read.
I think some people are overreacting for all the wrong reasons. Yes, I think that child abuse, fraud and intimidation deserve a very strong reaction and more (such as criminal charges and the closing of the school) against Landry but when we get into specific cause and effect conclussions about students we have to be more careful. First, it is perfectly plausible that they would have gotten in those same schools with honest essays instead of those over the top fictional tragic stories. Then the transcripts, that I see as sheer stupidity on the part of Landry, why not just give away A’s and then weight/inflate them into oblivion like so many other schools out there? As to students being unprepared, yes it is bad and shameful but then again how many kids go on to college from accredited schools with accredited teachers just as unprepared or perhaps more? At least so called “elite” colleges also practice grade inflation and have better resources to help out students having difficulties.
What I am trying to say is that what Landry did was serious and deserves strong consequences, how he used it for self-promotion is plain disgusting. As for the kids it is horrible they had to go through this, but sadly, in practical terms, they probably would have fared worse if they would have attended their local public school. So instead of using them as scapegoats let’s use this as an opportunity to take a look at the bigger picture which is just as bizarre or perhaps more so.
@notigering
A bit facetious in my opinion. The dropout rate for these students seems to be around 50% higher than midtier HBCU’s and these students got into elites, so no the “what’s the difference” argument doesn’t work here.
Do you have a link for the dropout rate of TM Landry students?
Honestly, I’m not sure what they were thinking… the girl who got accepted to Wesleyan dropped out before first semester even ended because she felt like she was on a “embarrassingly childlike” level compared to her peers. What did they think would happen once they got to these top notch universities full of students with perfect stats, after lying to get there?
Yikes - not everyone has a “fun” story. Your response shows why people tend to view Ivy students as narcissistic elitists. Pop the bubble.
Of course, I misread the title and thought this was about a “Laundry Scandal”.
@yellowbean It’s not clear that the Wesleyan kid made up anything, possible that only the school sent fraudulent materials on her behalf.
This article raises some interesting points and this quote from an admissions rep in particular struck me - were the Landrys caught because they were just really crudely lying/perpetuating fraud, not doing it as well as wealthier schools?
More: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-t-m-landry-fraud/
“If this were just a normal school in a rich NJ suburb and the kids went along with the fake transcripts and two years of test prep instead of ap courses everyone would be universal in condemnation of the duplicity.”
Good point, there does seem to be a double standard which is disconcerting, if you’re poor and black, we’ll excuse you for taking act prep classes instead of APs, but if you’re upper class or wealthy and white (or Asian), shame on you for going along with that, you should have known better, because you’re smart and knowledgeable. It’s pretty insidious actually, oh those poor, black kids, why should we expect them to be smart and know things about college admissions.
If “the fraudulence is everywhere”, then obviously the admission process is deeply flawed. What else can you conclude?