Are made public.

Last edited Wed Mar 13, 2019, 11:33 PM - Edit history (2)

Fifty years ago when my husband a first year law student (I worked two jobs to get him through) I remember going to a get-together with a few of his classmates...there was one student in particular who really stood out...he was inarticulate, crude, and just plain stupid and he had this obnoxious in-your-face sense of entitlement...after listening to him drone on and on about his family's boats, cars, and lake house I asked this moron how the hell he got into law school thinking he would be offended by the question, he wasn't...he said he won the gene pool...last name, wealth, influence, the multi million dollar law school endowment and oh ya he paid a guy a lot of money to take the entrance exam in his place...and that was half a century ago...so is this cheating scandal something new?...of course not...

It is not always what you know, but who you know. Always follow the money to the corruption.

He was the son of a poor tailor from Charleston, South Carolina. How he ended up in Boston, I don't even know. His purpose, considering his later career, was to get an education so as not to end up as a poor tailor in South Carolina himself. He certainly never had any social class he was trying to signal.

Of course, I doubt any of today's student body is paying for their tuition by cleaning the toilets of the rest of heir classmates.

There likely are so legacies, but if it's not that top tier, then they are going to be motivated to have successful students. A high failure rate would look bad. Middle class people get in.

If you are adding the effect of just being middle class, it does make some sense, since they have the better chance to get good grades, going to stable and solid public schools. And they can afford the tuition. Though now that this borrowing seems to be required for most, it really is a rather undesirable way to have class standing.

I was in the bottom third of the income distribution when I went, but both my parents had Masters degrees, which makes the biggest difference. So it's still signaling class, just social class rather than economic class.

Degrees. Though their parents did not. That generation had children who did better than the parents and that seems to be the expectation which is not always warranted.

this college admissions "scam" was news. I figured this type of stuff happened all the time. It sucks that this goes on, but that's what people with money do. How is it different than that "legacy" thing that gets kids into certain schools? I mean, do any of us believe George W. was smart enough to get into yale on his own? To me, this isn't news, nor should anyone be shocked at this.

Tomorrow's top story: Rich people have undue influence on everything that occurs in this world! I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!

This whole thing is perplexing

always been this way. Since when is this revelation a big shock to everyone?

My family could not rub two dimes together, but I got into me state's top public U on grades and test scores.

But I see your point, legacy entries and entries because who a kid's family know are commonplace everywhere.

Interestingly, if the rich parents had simply chosen a university and then donated $1 million, then mentioned that they had a child that would be entering college the next year, the child would have likely gotten into the school. But the parents wanted to play gangster instead.