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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

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None of the students were charged because prosecutors said their parents were the scheme’s principal actors.

This doesn’t strike me as persuasive.

If the young people materially participated, they are responsible. If they knew about it and went along, they are responsible. The schools have the right (and obligation, I think) to act.

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Originally posted by jodi:
I’m with Cindy.

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Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Whatever happened to equal pay for equal work?

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What's the chance of any of these kids being expelled?

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What are your best “hacks” for the back-to-school season?

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Right now, around the country, there are dozens of readers who are absolutely appalled that they didn’t think of this. It’s brilliant! Who pays attention to the crew team roster besides the admissions department, anyway?

Our nation’s favorite competitive sport is not football, basketball or baseball. It is parenting.

Some of the competition is legal. Many of the moves are totally understandable. Almost everybody who has kids and a little money has tried to give their children an edge. But there are edges like putting them in a travel sports program or getting a private tutor, and then there is the case of actress Felicity Huffman, who allegedly paid for somebody to fix her daughter’s SAT score. Fellow actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to USC in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the college's crew team—even though they did not participate in crew.

If you’re surprised, you haven’t seen a mom use intimidation to get her daughter more playing time on a sixth-grade team, or a dad go from helping his son do his homework to doing it for him. The slope is as slippery as you want it to be. And if your kid is nearing the end of high school and you’re sure she’s a good kid, a better student than the scores indicate, and she would really thrive in the right environment if somebody just gives her a chance … well, one man’s racketeering indictment is another man’s guide to raising a happy child.

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The coaches are accused of taking graft to get underserving students in, and legal forms of this practice are common all over the country. Put your name on a building, endow a chair, and watch what happens.

You can read the indictment and wonder how these coaches thought they could get away with this. Presumably, when an admissions department admits an unqualified student because a coach said the student was a recruit, that admissions department would then, you know, check to see if the unqualified student actually played the sport. Evidently these coaches assumed the admissions department was not really paying attention. Perhaps they figured that the admissions department was so accustomed to doing favors for the wealthy, for bending its process for the athletic department, and for adjusting its standards when convenient, that nobody would notice.

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Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Felicity Huffman

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:

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Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Felicity Huffman

The papers are treating this as a celebrity scandal. How much traction do think this story would get it there were no celebrities involved?

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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:

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Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Felicity Huffman

The papers are treating this as a celebrity scandal. How much traction do think this story would get it there were no celebrities involved?

Quite a bit. It's a classic "rich people breaking the rules and paying bribes" scandal. The public loves those.

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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
The coaches are accused of taking graft to get undeserving students in, and legal forms of this practice are common all over the country. Put your name on a building, endow a chair, and watch what happens.