What is your reaction to the college admissions cheating scandal?

Fifty people in six states were accused by the Justice Department on Tuesday of taking part in a major college admission scandal. They include Hollywood actresses, business leaders and elite college coaches. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged 50 people in a brazen scheme to buy spots in the freshman classes at Yale, Stanford and other big name schools. Have you heard about the scandal yet?
- What is your reaction to the college admissions cheating scandal? Are you surprised that something like this happened in the United States? Why or why not?
- Who do you think should be held responsible for these crimes and how so?
- Do you think the college admissions process is rigged to favor the wealthy? Do you think it is fair? Why or why not?
- What message does this scandal send to high school students who intend to go to college? What is your biggest takeaway from it?

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4meAndyou · F

I posted a question about it a couple of days ago. I am viscerally disgusted. I think every one of the participants should be jailed. I think that a search should be made to discover who did NOT get in to the colleges involved because of these fraudulent admissions, and I believe they should be given automatic all expense paid admissions to said colleges and universities, paid by the fraudsters.

Sadly, I believe that rich elites everywhere in the world, have used their wealth and influence to buy their children into the most prestigious schools. Usually they buy new buildings, or libraries. The people involved in the present scandal are not considered to be in the same class of wealth...and I suppose you could say they have proved beyond a doubt that they have no class.

I think that all the students who gained admission due to this fraud should be expelled, whether they knew about it or not, and that their parents should be charged with explaining to them WHY they were expelled. THAT would be the ultimate punishment for all of them.

MistyCee

@4meAndyou Sheesh. I'd settle for some of that, but free tuition for everyone else and expelling "innocent" students seems like a bit much.

4meAndyou · F

@MistyCee Well, it probably is a bit much...but I think we need to send a very strong message. The "fraudulent" students will eventually be outed, by the press, when their parents go on trial, and their lives will be ruined.

Even if they were not expelled, the odor will follow them. When they apply for jobs, the HR department will be mentally wondering just how stupid these kids had to have been to cause their parents to buy them into college.

Their lives would be vastly improved by expulsion. They could apply to colleges on their own merit, and they could live their lives without having to wonder what 4.0 athletic genius from a poorer background was denied a chance they had earned by hard work and their own sweat.

MistyCee

@4meAndyou I get your resentment and even share some of it, but punishing the actual bad actors seems more into important and worthwhile, and that includes coaches and others who may not be wealthy or privileged, but nevertheless were part of the criminal enterprise.

I like small calculated cuts, rather than mass beheadings, even of the aristocracy.