Huge scandal breaking: Movie stars bribing Yale, Stanford, Wake Forrest Coaches 100's of thousands to take their kids in on scholarship, paying people to take tests for them.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:Second thought:

It shouldn’t be much longer before scummers bitch about not being listed as one of the named “elite” schools parents paid to get their kids into. Conversely, some have likely already started boasting about how u-m prevents such fraud.

Probably not.

Thanks for the input, Blue.

This story is all about people who paid this organization(s) big money for this, but if it is this easy to pay a test administrator a measly $5,000 to let an adult take a test for a student (and take the test back to his hotel room to complete it), then how often does some version of this happen elsewhere? With all the dirty money in college football and basketball, a few grand to get a player eligible is nothing.

MiamiSpartan wrote:This story is all about people who paid this organization(s) big money for this, but if it is this easy to pay a test administrator a measly $5,000 to let an adult take a test for a student (and take the test back to his hotel room to complete it), then how often does some version of this happen elsewhere? With all the dirty money in college football and basketball, a few grand to get a player eligible is nothing.

Derrick Rose says not possible

Heat Miser wrote:

DWags wrote:

I think this goes a bit deeper. I think some of their kids were so dumb they needed to have people take the tests for them. There is a guy who is pleading guilty who was the go between who took the money and bribed the officials, had them get notes from doctors saying their kids needed extra time on the tests. Then, he got to the test givers and they'd take them one on one with the people he bribed. After they were done with the test the proctor would re-do the answers. It's pretty complicated. But yeah, to get into the universities we're talking about takes more than a donor, unless you're eli broad. Especially if you'r kids are really dumb ass.

That just gets them in. If they're that dumb, how much more bribing/cheating had to be done to get them through.?

Maybe they majored in General Studies?

I'm with DWags on this one.

I also think the parents have a massive sense of entitlement for their barely average or below average HS seniors. I can't imagine how desperate parents must be to spend up to $500K like Lori Loughlin did including phony video productions to portray her daughter as a rower and worst of all, most of the parents claimed phony learning disabilities to get special testing arrangements.

What's that conversation like?

We love you so we need to reclassify you as a chlld with a learning disability and lie about your athletic abilities. Anything to get you into USC okay?

I'm curious if we have anyone familiar with admissions standards. If a school has 1000 applicants who qualify, and 800 openings, do they then rank/remove 200 (not taking into account attrition).

LOS ANGELES—Following revelations about the actress’s alleged involvement in a college bribery scandal, University of Southern California officials told reporters Tuesday that Lori Loughlin’s daughter was admitted solely based on her socioeconomic background. “We certainly condemn bribery, but we would also like to acknowledge that USC student Olivia Jade earned her way here just like every other freshman: By having lucked into growing up in the right zip code,”



“Since our founding in 1880, applicants have been assessed purely on strength of social class, and Olivia’s name jumped right off the page.

DWags wrote:

LOS ANGELES—Following revelations about the actress’s alleged involvement in a college bribery scandal, University of Southern California officials told reporters Tuesday that Lori Loughlin’s daughter was admitted solely based on her socioeconomic background. “We certainly condemn bribery, but we would also like to acknowledge that USC student Olivia Jade earned her way here just like every other freshman: By having lucked into growing up in the right zip code,”



“Since our founding in 1880, applicants have been assessed purely on strength of social class, and Olivia’s name jumped right off the page.

Wags......

That's an onion article.....

kingstonlake wrote:

DWags wrote:

LOS ANGELES—Following revelations about the actress’s alleged involvement in a college bribery scandal, University of Southern California officials told reporters Tuesday that Lori Loughlin’s daughter was admitted solely based on her socioeconomic background. “We certainly condemn bribery, but we would also like to acknowledge that USC student Olivia Jade earned her way here just like every other freshman: By having lucked into growing up in the right zip code,”



“Since our founding in 1880, applicants have been assessed purely on strength of social class, and Olivia’s name jumped right off the page.

Wags......

That's an onion article.....

Em, yeah, I copied it for you guys. It’s funny as hell.

DWags wrote:

kingstonlake wrote:

Wags......

That's an onion article.....

Em, yeah, I copied it for you guys. It’s funny as hell.

Fair enough. And funny.

DWags wrote:

LOS ANGELES—Following revelations about the actress’s alleged involvement in a college bribery scandal, University of Southern California officials told reporters Tuesday that Lori Loughlin’s daughter was admitted solely based on her socioeconomic background. “We certainly condemn bribery, but we would also like to acknowledge that USC student Olivia Jade earned her way here just like every other freshman: By having lucked into growing up in the right zip code,”



“Since our founding in 1880, applicants have been assessed purely on strength of social class, and Olivia’s name jumped right off the page.

Awesome

It's a bit deeper but isn't this how "Legacies" have been working forever?

exclusive footage of OTPT walking down Bogue on his way to class after his parents got him into MSU..

AvgMSUJoe wrote:What's lost in this conversation is how the daughter didn't fall far from the hawt tree....

Yep. This girl did not even have to go to college. There are a bunch of stanford and harvard type doctors or lawyers right now that would kill to marry this girl and treat her like a princess. So what do the parents do? Go muck up their lives when they didn't have to. Just buy her a cool pad by the USC campus and let her party on football Saturdays.

I think I'd respect screwing your way towards millions vs having mommy and daddy buying a fake education just for people to eventually figure out you're dumb as a rock anyway.

I was thinking about this last night. How friggin scummy and bottom of the barrel is the hollywood scene to keep or get your kid into the business. My god, its just gross. I'll relate a story in a couple minutes.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:exclusive footage of OTPT walking down Bogue on his way to class after his parents got him into MSU..

more like otpt after a refund check

Good friend of mine has a talented daughter and a bitch for a wife. Good kid. Talented and at least publicly... humble. Wife always had an "air" about her. Anyway, entered her kid in some competitions and she's done well. Extremely good at what she does. Pagents as well, blah, blah. Kid appeared on a few episodes of a show we've all heard of, mom appeared as a villian, blah blah. Mom always has felt her kid is better than the local scene in Michigan and tells hubby Me and your daughter are moving to L.A. to pursue her career (a.k.a. MY dream). Son and hubby left back in Mich. Of course she shacks up with some connected sleaze ball. Divorce ensues. Kid is appearing as the lead character on some netflix teen comedy joint. Kid has virtually zero acting chops or experience. I'm not saying she isn't talented or won't be good but how does that happen? Relative obscurity to reality shit show to role on netflix joint. I don't even like to think about how the process went. My gut tells me it was slimy and gross. My heart hopes it was dumb luck, talent, and netflix wanting to dump a few million for the hell of it.....

I had to break the news to my kids that we did not think they were special snowflakes; and therefore it was on their own merits that they were accepted into LCC, MSU, Northern, and other colleges which they applied.

That, and the fact that if I had several hundred thousand sitting around, then I'd have spent it on more important things than which college they went to. You know things like 40 year old scotch, golf at Pebble, sunsets in Hawaii, and some 20 year old sluts.

Wally Fairway wrote:I had to break the news to my kids that we did not think they were special snowflakes; and therefore it was on their own merits that they were accepted into LCC, MSU, Northern, and other colleges which they applied.

That, and the fact that if I had several hundred thousand sitting around, then I'd have spent it on more important things than which college they went to. You know things like 40 year old scotch, golf at Pebble, sunsets in Hawaii, and some 20 year old sluts.

Davis lee Roth related a story about his father. He was an eye surgeon. His sister told their dad she wanted to follow in her dads foot steps and go to medical school. Dads response? "Good. And made her pay for it." Said she wouldn't appreciate it as much if she didn't pay for it herself.

Was reading the Washington Post's reporting on Mr. Singer's college placement scam and noticed this tidbit about IMG Academy. Looks like IMG had Mark Riddell on staff until yesterday. He worked with Singer to "deliver top test scores". IMG has been a favorite stop on the recruiting circuit for Jim Harbaugh.

From the link:
Mark Riddell
When Singer wanted to deliver top test scores for the children of his clients, according to the criminal complaint, he brought in Riddell, who was then in charge of preparing students for college entrance exams at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Singer would arrange for Riddell, a 2004 graduate of Harvard, to take the tests for students with the aspiration but not the scores to gain admission to top schools. Riddell consistently delivered high scores.

IMG Academy is a boarding school founded by a sports marketing firm that prepares elite athletes for top college programs or careers as professional athletes. The academy took Riddell’s biography off its website. Before it was removed, it said the former college tennis player had helped “thousands of students in gaining admissions to top American universities such as Stanford, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth [and] University of Chicago.”

Neither Riddell nor IMG Academy could be reached for comment.

Operation Varsity Blues List

I worked construction out of high school and took some classes here and there for a while. I thought it was pretty cool.

GRR Spartan wrote:Was reading the Washington Post's reporting on Mr. Singer's college placement scam and noticed this tidbit about IMG Academy. Looks like IMG had Mark Riddell on staff until yesterday. He worked with Singer to "deliver top test scores". IMG has been a favorite stop on the recruiting circuit for Jim Harbaugh.

From the link:
Mark Riddell
When Singer wanted to deliver top test scores for the children of his clients, according to the criminal complaint, he brought in Riddell, who was then in charge of preparing students for college entrance exams at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Singer would arrange for Riddell, a 2004 graduate of Harvard, to take the tests for students with the aspiration but not the scores to gain admission to top schools. Riddell consistently delivered high scores.

IMG Academy is a boarding school founded by a sports marketing firm that prepares elite athletes for top college programs or careers as professional athletes. The academy took Riddell’s biography off its website. Before it was removed, it said the former college tennis player had helped “thousands of students in gaining admissions to top American universities such as Stanford, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth [and] University of Chicago.”

Neither Riddell nor IMG Academy could be reached for comment.

Operation Varsity Blues List

Yes, this was mentioned on the first page of the thread. This is why I can't help but wonder who else IMG has cheated for. This scandal is about people who have paid money for these services. But it's very much in IMG's best interest to have their students, especially the most high profile among them, be able to pass the college entrance exams.

I just want to thank the board for not binning this up. It’s amazing how we can all agree that behavior is abhorrent without pinning it to a political ideology. I would note that the fact that a couple posters that have recently taken sabbaticals from tSwill has nothing to do with this newfound decency.

I do think it's funny how this appear to be where the line is drawn.
Give a quarter-million to the school? Sure we'll take your idiot kid.
Give a quarter-million to some test fixer? Your idiot kid doesn't belong amongst our serious and deserving student-body.

These schools are just upset they got cut out of the deal.

Clarett's Folly wrote:I do think it's funny how this appear to be where the line is drawn.
Give a quarter-million to the school? Sure we'll take your idiot kid.
Give a quarter-million to some test fixer? Your idiot kid doesn't belong amongst our serious and deserving student-body.

These schools are just upset they got cut out of the deal.

There's probably some truth to this. The stories of the "donations" that came prior to some famous politicians getting into Ivy League schools are blatant pay for play.

AvgMSUJoe wrote:

Clarett's Folly wrote:These schools are just upset they got cut out of the deal.

Zactly.

I don't see this as different then a "legacy" who's parents happened to be at the "Gold Level" of contributions.

Well, there are a couple of really big differences.

1) This is fraud. If a school takes Johnny Richboy despite a poor GPA/SAT because dad gave half a million to the school, that is the school's choice and they do it with their eyes wide open. In this case, they are given falsified information about the academics of the kid. There's a reason this is a federal fraud case, and it's not when a school accepts a kid cause daddy's a donar.

2) Legacies and parents that give big donate have contributed to the betterment of the school. Donations are vital to a University.

Yes, to the kid who just misses the cut because of either of these scenarios, it's essentially the same. But there's a big difference when it comes to the Universities.

To my wife (who worked with special needs children for 20 years) and myself who had 2 children who got their undergrad from Big Ten schools the two most abhorrent parts of this scandal was the parents agreeing to present their children as "challenged learners" so the university would accept an alternative testing situation AND create a false narrative about their child's athletic accomplishments.

Personally I find it repugnant that parents think they need to hire an admissions consultant to fill out their child's college application(s).  If your child can't do at least 90% of the application as a college bound junior or senior, community college might be a better path.

I didnt read the thread, but I dont get why they went to the extreme to cheat their kids in.

What happened to donating a shit ton of money to get your kid in? Even if their dumb as rocks, the parents could still buy the grades. It's been done for decades. Not that I'm not glad this is brought to everyone's attention. But this shit isnt new.

Dendrobates wrote:I didnt read the thread, but I dont get why they went to the extreme to cheat their kids in.

What happened to donating a shit ton of money to get your kid in? Even if their dumb as rocks, the parents could still buy the grades. It's been done for decades. Not that I'm not glad this is brought to everyone's attention. [B]But this shit isnt new.[/B$]

yep - probably the least surprising scandal in the history of scandals.

GRR Spartan wrote:To my wife (who worked with special needs children for 20 years) and myself who had 2 children who got their undergrad from Big Ten schools the two most abhorrent parts of this scandal was the parents agreeing to present their children as "challenged learners" so the university would accept an alternative testing situation AND create a false narrative about their child's athletic accomplishments.

Personally I find it repugnant that parents think they need to hire an admissions consultant to fill out their child's college application(s). If your child can't do at least 90% of the application that as a college bound junior or senior community college might be a better path.

I had no idea that was a thing. If your kid is that lazy or incompetent to fill out a college form, than you failed as a parent.

While not to the extreme as these cases, it would infuriate me as a kid when parents did their kids work/school projects. Helping a kid understand their assignments and do it for them is different. But I would bust my ass, sometimes unsuccessfully, in projects and would be bottom of the barrel because most of the parents did their kids work. My parents would never ever dothat. And I felt so wronged even at a young age. And I still hear about parents actually doing their kids assignments/homework! Wtf is wrong with them?! Hell, if I forgot to mention I needed materials for a project as a kid, and it was the night before, my mom said too bad. I had my chance. She wasn't going to rush to get shit because I procrastinated. No project, bad grade.

... sincerely, the kid who actually did all the work by herself

GRR Spartan wrote:Was reading the Washington Post's reporting on Mr. Singer's college placement scam and noticed this tidbit about IMG Academy. Looks like IMG had Mark Riddell on staff until yesterday. He worked with Singer to "deliver top test scores". IMG has been a favorite stop on the recruiting circuit for Jim Harbaugh.

From the link:
Mark Riddell
When Singer wanted to deliver top test scores for the children of his clients, according to the criminal complaint, he brought in Riddell, who was then in charge of preparing students for college entrance exams at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Singer would arrange for Riddell, a 2004 graduate of Harvard, to take the tests for students with the aspiration but not the scores to gain admission to top schools. Riddell consistently delivered high scores.

IMG Academy is a boarding school founded by a sports marketing firm that prepares elite athletes for top college programs or careers as professional athletes. The academy took Riddell’s biography off its website. Before it was removed, it said the former college tennis player had helped “thousands of students in gaining admissions to top American universities such as Stanford, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth [and] University of Chicago.”

Neither Riddell nor IMG Academy could be reached for comment.

Operation Varsity Blues List

Hell, that’s just truth in advertising.

MiamiSpartan wrote:

AvgMSUJoe wrote:

Zactly.

I don't see this as different then a "legacy" who's parents happened to be at the "Gold Level" of contributions.

Well, there are a couple of really big differences.

1) This is fraud. If a school takes Johnny Richboy despite a poor GPA/SAT because dad gave half a million to the school, that is the school's choice and they do it with their eyes wide open. In this case, they are given falsified information about the academics of the kid. There's a reason this is a federal fraud case, and it's not when a school accepts a kid cause daddy's a donar.

2) Legacies and parents that give big donate have contributed to the betterment of the school. Donations are vital to a University.

Yes, to the kid who just misses the cut because of either of these scenarios, it's essentially the same. But there's a big difference when it comes to the Universities.

Is that a real name? I like it and I want it... now. My family is willing to pay handsomely for it.

Dendrobates wrote:I didnt read the thread, but I dont get why they went to the extreme to cheat their kids in.

What happened to donating a shit ton of money to get your kid in? Even if their dumb as rocks, the parents could still buy the grades. It's been done for decades. Not that I'm not glad this is brought to everyone's attention. But this shit isnt new.

Oh, so you didn’t do the work and now you want to be caught up. What a perfect thread for this to happen.

tGreenWay wrote:

Dendrobates wrote:I didnt read the thread, but I dont get why they went to the extreme to cheat their kids in.

What happened to donating a shit ton of money to get your kid in? Even if their dumb as rocks, the parents could still buy the grades. It's been done for decades. Not that I'm not glad this is brought to everyone's attention. But this shit isnt new.

Oh, so you didn’t do the work and now you want to be caught up. What a perfect thread for this to happen.

I fail at tSwill skills not school skills

Dendrobates wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

Oh, so you didn’t do the work and now you want to be caught up. What a perfect thread for this to happen.

I fail at tSwill skills not school skills

Smart women are a turn on.

Dendrobates wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

Oh, so you didn’t do the work and now you want to be caught up. What a perfect thread for this to happen.

I fail at tSwill skills not school skills

Yeah, that's my job.

A little irony in this story. Felicity Huffman of Desparate Housewives fame (one of the accused), is married to William H. Macy, who stars in the TV show Shameless. In the first part of the long running series, his brilliant son in the show makes money by writing papers and taking college entrance exams for other students. Macy has not been charged, but how weird that his wife is involved in this scandal, but "only" to the tune of $15,000 for an SAT test graded by a paid person. She turned down the "opportunity" to have the same service for the younger daughter when she approached college age.