And these families buying their way in, happen to be those that benefited most from last year's tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.

Swamp drained! (I used to vote republican, but never, ever again.)

Kick these cheaters OUT!

What is sad for me, as a long-time professional in this field (who's earned somewhat less than the $25mm Singer has collected) is that these parents, with Singer's help, deprived their children of the positive, powerful growth experience that a good admissions counselor can offer. Not to overlook the hit to the teens' self-esteem. Just a lot of rich people lacking ethics and common sense.

In spite of the middle class receiving great tax breaks last year, the rich are still richer. And those rich, liberal Hollywood types think they have to cheat to get their kids into rich, liberal universities. How unfortunate for them and their children. The privileged class in CA are a bunch of Democrats. I used to vote Democrat, but no longer... yep, I say kick these cheaters out!

> In spite of the middle class receiving great tax breaks last year...

What? You mean when Paul Ryan said a woman's tax break would allow her to afford a Costco membership? ($70)

"Paul Ryan: "a secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week ... she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year." Web Link

> And those rich, liberal Hollywood types

Look at the indictments - Hillsborough, Atherton, PA, etc.. Web Link

Look at the occupations - financial, real estate, tech bro's, etc.. Yes, two actors. Big whup.

All this from a poster who claims that the republican's tax cuts for corporations and billionaires are really just for the "the middle class." Nice try.

We do agree - kick the cheaters out and shame their parents through a trial. Prosecute the enablers.

"In spite of the middle class receiving great tax breaks last year ..."

Stupid troll is as stupid troll does.

Why does everything have to have be tied to Trump? Don't you ever tire of it?

These were spoiled rich people accused of illegal acts. Most of these bribes occurred before Trump even ran for President.

You can blame Trump for a lot. This scandal isn't one of those things. In fact, you dilute and conflate the culpability of the accused by trying to blame others. Their bad acts are quite sufficient without having to tie them to Trump.

Well done FBI for a difficult and well conducted investigation.

Looks to me like a lot of entitled wealthy folks thought their kids were the same; wealthy and entitled. Bribery, cheating and lying are poor form whenever and wherever they take place. And an especially poor example to set for your kids. This has nothing to do with politics or President Trump. And it is nice to see the FBI investigating actual crimes with no seeming political overtones.

Yes... one could feel bad for the kids of the "rich people" although some were said to know about the scam...

Personally, I feel sorry for the students that applied and were worthy on their own merits that were denied because of the spoiled rich kids that stole their spots - That was certainly an impact on them too! how can that be rectified?

As a mother of a student-athlete who trains 22+ hours a week and spends every second not doing that studying for school and the SAT, I am just disgusted. My child is up at 4:30 in the morning for morning practice and is up until past midnight every night of the week studying in order to work towards the goal of competing in college. (The pressure is so incredible-- Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin who was a graduate student at Stanford took her own life just days ago. In an article she penned in VeloNews prior to her death, she admitted "the truth is that most of the time, I don't make everything work. It's like juggling with knives..."). I am incredulous that there are parents and students so disrespectful of the work that she and all REAL student-athletes put in that they would actually fake a profile.

How could the coaches-- who only have a few spots for athletes and know how hard student-athletes have had to work to get to the collegiate level and juggle their academics and athletics -- do something like this? Well, I know the answer is greed, but I just can't believe it. It breaks my heart and makes me incensed all at once.

"According to NBC News, the FBI’s code name for the investigation was the undeniably excellent “OPERATION VARSITY BLUES.” According to the authorities, more than 200 federal agents launched investigations in six states after agents found evidence of fraud in a separate undercover investigation."

NBC News

The Stanford athlete/admissions process is beset by myriad conflicts, the skeptical public, including Stanford alums. Stanford knows of all of them and its many processes for resolving them exist but are not fully disclosed. Cynics and friends deserve full, complete, untainted review and disclosure.
One way is for the University trustees to immediately crate and charge an entirely independent review commission.

I am a career University employee very knowledgeable of the processes, especially admissions, during the time of my commitments to Stanford. I admire Stanford and fully expect its complete disclosures to ethical and reassuring.
Still, all people have weaknesses.

Admirably and best expectations for the Commission's public results.
Harry Turner

REALLY hope that they go back through all the donations received historically and expose this scam completely over the years. We all know children who gained places at Ivy's without any individual talent, and it's completely unfair and duplicitous to students who actually work hard and achieve in the face of adversity and challenges. Basing a student's future and career on the wealth of parents prepared to cheat, is not a good life example. College system for admissions needs complete transparency, and while they're at it 'legacy' needs investigation too. Just because parents went to a college, doesn't mean that's the best place for that student.

Anyone surprised by all of this has just plain had their head in the sand. Money can, will and does buy anything.

Some self serving school president or board or politician will come out to say "we are taking steps to see this never happens again." Until the next time it happens, that is.

Equally disgusting are those people who get into so called prestigious institution only because they can dribble a ball, or throw a football better than anyone else. The majority of those I'd say could not hold a candle to those who are more than talented academically, yet are rejected.

When will that ever be fixed? No time soon, as long as big money is driving. No end in sight there.

Erin,
Your child is getting 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night. That is not a 'real' student-athlete, that is both unhealthy and a very very dangerous choice for a young person who will never be able to sustain it. I hope you will not brag any longer about your child's choices/lifestyle but instead get your child some immediate help. I am a local educator, not a troll, and this is really serious, so very serious, and I am reaching out to you from the bottom of my heart to ask you to invest in your child's long-term life, not this crazy, misguided dream our valley sells. Integrity is knowing yourself fully, respecting your limits, and living in truth--it can come in many forms and be broken in many others.

"Equally disgusting are those people who get into so called prestigious institution only because they can dribble a ball, or throw a football better than anyone else. The majority of those I'd say could not hold a candle to those who are more than talented academically, yet are rejected. "

Stanford has always valued academics over athletics and its athletes are consistently the highest rated academically of any university in the NCAA.

"Through 2017-18, Stanford was equally prolific in the classroom, with 16 programs earning perfect 1,000 multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, measuring data collected over a span of four academic years. Additionally, 17 varsity teams earned APR Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA. The third year of the Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement (ACE) Program also yielded positive results, as 20 student-athletes joined their peers from Duke in a three-week, immersive summer service volunteer program with visits to South Africa, Vietnam, China and India. The Cardinal also was honored with 10 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, highlighted by Katie Ledecky’s selection as the Academic All-American of the Year."

Web Link

I got into Stanford in 1976 on merit, out of Sequoia High School. My mom had a 9th grade education. My dad was an electrician. They were supportive, but didn't push me at all. I just loved to learn. I was lucky to have had great teachers. I worked hard, I did volunteer work, I did extra-curriculars. I took my SATs without tutoring because I didn't know prep courses existed. I wrote my entrance exam in pen, a stream-of- consciousness first draft, right on my application. No one told me that might not be a good idea.

It makes me sick to think about the kids who deserved admission and were denied to make room for the children of these awful people. After the last 2 years of seeing increasingly despicable behavior by celebrities, our leaders and our peers in the media, I thought I was beyond disgust. This story proved me wrong.

If it's a private university, it seems that they could set the admission standards to whatever they please. If they're going to throw merit out the window, why not just "sell" admission spots to the highest bidder? Then I'd know not to attend that university.

I sincerely hope that anyone accepting a bribe in return for a "cut in line" for acceptance outside of the legitimate application/acceptance process gets a huge fine and jail time. A message needs to be sent. Also agree with the poster above regarding the who child is, IMO, in a very dangerous place. Please be careful! It's all about balance.

Also, I agree this has nothing to do with trump, or tax cuts etc. I find that people expect way too much out of government, and that they are almost always less efficient than the private sector. Other than law enforcement, the government plays no role in this one. Glad they broke up this scheme, not surprised it's going on and I expect it will continue to go on...

Finally, being "rich" does not predispose someone to being a cheater. It's the hardworking that get richer - those who are willing to take legal risks that others are not, and deliver results through hard work. I taught in a big ten university and I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are some who try much harder than others, and it's usually those folks who work harder (and smarter) that find higher levels of achievement. Possessing good values (honesty, integrity etc) should be independent of income level, it's something we should all demand of ourselves and fellow citizens.

And what about Meg Whitman and her large donations to Princeton to benefit the admission of her kids? And your own couple of grand to Stanford Alumni with that veiled hope of pushing your kid along?

It's either egalitarian and transparent, or bribery in all of its many forms. If Stanford and the other big ones want to act like a closed and corrupt club, then they do not deserve to have charitable status (like churches) as we're all paying for it in the end.

Don't encourage the bastards and send your kids to De Anza!

@ really I went to one of the Stanford admission talks with my child several years ago. The speaker said 'you'll hear a lot of rumors about donations . . . here's what we think about donations. If it's below 7 figures, 'thanks''. I believe what she was saying was unless it's a million or above, your few thousand $$$ of donations won't cut it. I found it an amusing talk, but could see other parents visibly concerned. We applied elsewhere.

Jared Kushner got into Harvard after his father made a $2.5 million "donation" to the school. This is how the rich get richer. MAGA.

Let's all pray this is the beginning of the end of the Entitlement Era of child rearing. Parents not allowing their children to fail and holding them up as trophies "My child got into (amazing) university!"
I hear from another source that one of the parents involved has a child who got off on a more serious crime charge - no details other than he may be the next Bill Cosby... and mommy just keeps on letting him get his way.

What about the high schools ? Were they surprised that some of their students who were less academic were accepted into these colleges/ universities ? First hand these college counselors , teachers. & administrators should have know "something is up" & questioned something or someone knowing that other deserving students were either denied or wait listed . Besides parent paying an incredible amoun of money to the local private high schools as well as to this college admission counselor - I'll bet those kids went off to college in new BMWs

Wow, lots of comments on this one!

Isn't the real issue our society's insane focus on "top tier" colleges? It's out of control. I like that Julie Lythcott-Haims points out that even limiting yourself to the top 10% of colleges, that's over 400 choices; and Frank Bruni says "Where You Go is not Who You'll Be".

I encourage all local employers to help tamp down the focus on "elite colleges", by giving equal weight to applicants from other schools.

@pogo (beach & inon, as well) - you're the first one who brought Trump's name into it. I was just linking the insane tax cuts for corporations and billionaires to the mindset that also cheats to get their kids into a 'name' school.

Perhaps there was another 'name' school in the back of your head when you brought up Trump's name and fraud?

Hmmmm... lemme see... Trump, fraud and universities? What school could you possibly be thinking of???

Trump, fraud and university.

Gosh durnit, it's on the tip of my fingers!

Trump, fraud and university.

What could it be?!?!?

The TDS is strong here...

Mr. Carpenter, I hear what you're saying. But I'd bet if anyone took a good look the statistics would agree.

Best.

"Jared Kushner got into Harvard after his father made a $2.5 million "donation" to the school. This is how the rich get richer. MAGA."

Jared's on track to follow his father's footsteps - to jail.


"Finally, being "rich" does not predispose someone to being a cheater. It's the hardworking that get richer - those who are willing to take legal risks that others are not, and deliver results through hard work."

There's no automatic correlation between hard work and wealth. Some hard working people get richer. Most hard working people do not. There are many roads to 'rich'. Hard-working is but one. This scandal proves the point.

It's time for all of us to recognize that at some level we are all players in the college admissions game. It's just a matter of "to what extent?"

When wealthy people do the best for their children, at times they are buying an advantage simply by helping their children. Hiring a private tutor 2x weekly for your child, buying an SAT prep class, having a college essay reader, are all advantages of the rich. Those of us with means to do it, usually do what we can to help our child. While it's human nature, it's worth noting the hypocrisy in what we are doing.

Let's all look in the mirror and see if we are a part of the problem. After reading this article, White progressive parents and the Conundrum of Privilege, I know that I am. I'm starting with admitting it and then moving to stop. It's hard work.


Web Link

I am a local public school teacher. I want the community to know that cheating is on the rise. I've never seen so much pressure on students and kids are not using their moral compass to guide their decisions but justifying their cheating as necessary to "get the grade" to "get into the private high school" . to "get into the elite university".

I've had parents make donations to my classroom when their child has a A-, hoping for the bump. (email to follow the donation).

I've had parents defend their children's cheating and take me on as "destroying their chances" at X, Y, Z school by not looking the other way.

I've had children look me in the eye and lie about their school work without thinking twice about it and even lie to my face in front of their parents and the site administrator. I've had parents insist I apologize to their child for accusing him of cheating (even though the child and I both know what happened). Parents do a disservice to help their middle school children learn that they are above the school rules and code of conduct. Then they become above the high school honor code. As adults, they become above the law.... Hence the rise of white collar crime.

This is where it starts folks. If your twelve year old is comfortable lying, your 55 year old will be comfortable bribing.

Let's start by supporting our teachers, district administrators and school board members in teaching ethics as a part of the curriculum. We can take charge of doing it in public schools if parents are not going to do it at home. If we don't, we will be dependent on our FBI to police basic code of conduct (such as being who you say you are when you walk in to take a test). Really? We need the FBI to police this now?! SOS and get ethics into the curriculum before it's too late!

An old Dutch saying:

Money can create arrogance, and "Arrogance is Kissing the Devil's Ear."

What “local teacher” wrote should be printed out and distrubted in every kindergarten orientation in MP, Portola Valley and Woodside. My kids went through MP public schools a decade ago, but I saw firsthand as a volunteer parents who pushed and pushed so that their child got every advantage they could. There was always a reason, self esteem or getting into private middle school or private high school or my favorite- their 3rd grader’s D-1 basketball potential. I lived in a community that had local teachers living there, now it’s only lawyers or VC’s and a few old timers. This scandal isn’t surprising, I’m just surprised these people got caught.

To “local” above regarding high schools, I’ve been thinking the same thing! When mediocre students get accepted to places like Georgetown and suddenly develop learning disabilities in 11th grade before the SATs, doesn’t the school notice???? These are small private prep schools where the admin is very involved with students and pride themselves on where grads go to college. I think there is some complicity there.

1) The Stanford leadership is trustworthy and highly motivated by its core ethics to investigate itself.The Stanford President declared publicly that he would have all athletic programs investigated for evidence of fraudulent manipulation of the admissions process, that he described as “holistic”.

In this case, Stanford’s examination of itself is satisfactory to me, as are its focus on identifying and penalizing fraudulent applications. I don’t expect Stanford to be degraded by self-interest conflicts. Asking for an outside investigator would be premised on lack of trust in Stanford’s President and Provost. After some reflection I withdraw that previous assertion.

2) My core question when looking at a "student-athlete" is "is she or he a student first?" When I watch Stanford Women's Basketball players, I'm sure of it. Moreover, the monitoring and evaluation facts I've been seeking confirm that they are students first. Quoting Peter Carpenter:

"Stanford has always valued academics over athletics and its athletes are consistently the highest rated academically of any university in the NCAA.

"Through 2017-18, Stanford was equally prolific in the classroom, with 16 programs earning perfect 1,000 multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, measuring data collected over a span of four academic years. Additionally, 17 varsity teams earned APR Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA.

Stanford's student-athletes are students first.

In full disclosure, I am in the first generation of my family to receive a bachelor's degree, and I have undergraduate (Stanford) and graduate (NYU) degrees from two very expensive top-tier private universities. That said, as a parent raising children in the Bay Area, I encountered parents at every school, both public and private, at every grade level who were missing the entire point of parenting, which is to raise a good and useful person who will live a meaningful life and contribute to their community and their world. This starts with modeling community-minded behavior for your child; which required you to teach your child that their individual needs are NOT more important than the needs of their neighbors, classmates and family. As a Stanford alum I have overhead too many conversations around here (no doubt by some of you on this thread) about how to get a child "ahead" of the game, rather than recognizing that it's not a game, it's a life shared with the lives of everyone we touch.

We don't need more self-important, privileged people in this world. We need more people who value community, who believe that it is their most fundamental obligation to share and to bring others along. I would not feel pride in seeing my child step on the backs of others, but I would be beaming to see my child give another a helping hand.

One of the people named is from Menlo Park and owns a jewelry business. Her wares are carried at Romi Boutique in Palo Alto and online at https://www.mmbling.com. Please boycott this enterprise and encourage Romi Boutique to sever their relationship. Money is the only thing these people understand. Don't reward them by putting cash in their pocket.

There is a big difference between criminal behavior and poor ethics. Donating millions to get a potential spot is ethically unjust, but totally legal. Bribing coaches and exam proctors to cheat is clearly a criminal act. The court documents state that over 750 students gained admission this way through the company that was charged. The feds only had enough solid evidence to charge around 50 so far, but more are coming.

There is no way most of the students weren't aware what was going on. If a B or even A- student with no significant extracurriculars gets admitted to a top tier college, something shady was going on. Avg gpas admitted to top schools these days are all over 4.0 thanks to APs. The teens must know their parents pulled some strings, legally or not. I hope the students are expelled and more low and middle income students take their spots.

The benefits that athletes get on their applications is also unjust. Some boost sure, but I would want any student that was passionate and successful in a non-athletic pursuit to have the same boost as an athlete.

My 2cents as the first college grad in my family, accepted at a top tier college on merit only.

Not proud of America today.

Yes. We have a bunch of cheaters in our midst, but ACT accommodation abuse is ramped across USA.

About 2% of students could be expected to receive testing accommodations. In New Trier Illinois 24% do.

Why does this matter?
- One kid takes the ACT in 3 hours in a gymnasium with 500 other kids, and scores 25.
- Meanwhile a kid with an accommodation can take it in a private room over 4 days and get a 32.

Whether the accommodation is legit, or not colleges are NEVER told that one kid had all that time.

Take all the time you need... but come on... at least let the colleges know.

Web Link

The high schools need to be held accountable too for “overlooking” the cheating & lying. The student that cheated on her SAT at Notre Dame was also supposedly their tennis star too! But, she never went to practice or played in a game…..I guess when your parents can write large checks to that high school they turn a blind eye. I can’t image the school was ignorant of what happened when this student was accepted into Georgetown. Notre Dame was either purposey turning a blind eye or completely incompetent. High Schools benefit from this corruption because they can promote how their students are accepted into top colleges. This deception and illegal activity must stop!!

@Carol F please listen to yourself and how much you come across as prejudiced against kids with disabilities. My son has ASD1 and struggles with taking tests at speed in a room full of other kids with rustling papers and erasers making eraser noises and calculators banging on desks and coughing and shuffling and all those things that teenagers do.

He gets accommodations that he needs. I felt no obligation to disclose his disability to colleges. Are you serious? There’s a reason HIPAA laws exist and a reason we have the ADA. ASD isn’t a unique extracurricular activity; it’s a disability. Do you really think a college is going to take a disabled kid over a neurotypical one? I can answer that for you: No, they will not. That’s why we didn’t disclose his disability on his college applications. And why we didn’t have to.

I’m sorry some parents and kids game the system. They’ve really screwed things up for families like mine and created an environment where people like you will always question why some kids get the “advantage” of extra time. Trust me, my son would have gladly taken the ACT without extra time if it meant he could have “normal” social skills and less anxiety around sharing his thoughts. And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg for all the challenges he faces.

All of you out there who worry that my son is taking your kid’s spot at Stanford or Harvard because he got extra time on the ACT—and NAILED IT—can chill out. He’s at a school that works for kids like him.

Carol F, please reflect on the damage that can be caused by demanding that kids give up their right to privacy.