FBI busts Massive exam ring
This story is insane and apparently involves everyone from college coaches to Aunt Becky.
The plot involved students who attended or were seeking to attend Georgetown University, Stanford University, UCLA, the University of San Diego, USC, University of Texas, Wake Forest, and Yale, according to federal prosecutors.
Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-uncover-massive-college-entrance-exam-cheating-plot-n982136
Press conference about the story scheduled for 11:30am EST.
See, many of us were struggling not to post this. But there you go.
Of course they did, just ask them. Even some of their "bright" kids went to Ivy League schools also.
Obama too. No way a man that dumb got into Harvard.
Yeah he was so dumb they made him editor of the Harvard Law Review! It always goes to the dumbest law student in the class, especially the ones that went to undergrad at Columbia.
FYI- Editor Law Review is an elected position with no meaningful minimum requirements. (Must be a student)
This is incorrect. Harvard Law Review editors are selected on the basis of GPA and writing competition results. This was the case in 1990 as well.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1990/2/6/obama-named-new-law-review-president/
"Currently, there are 80 editors of the review, all of whom were selected on the basis of grades and the results of a writing contest."
Were you asleep for all of 2008 through 2016?
There is an Obama connection to this: Sasha and Malia Obama's tennis instructor is one of the guys indicted.
They were not admitted on tennis scholarships.
March 12th, 2019 at 10:19 PM ^
Two things...
1. I didn't say they were on tennis scholarships.
2. Not all the cheating was linked to sports scholarships.
They were not admitted on tennis scholarships.
Not to mention. If you're the child of a US President you don't need to bribe anyone or fake test scores to get into the school of your choice.
March 12th, 2019 at 10:37 PM ^
I see no difference between an under qualified applicant who gets in via bribes or fake test scores vs. an under qualified applicant who gets in because a parent was the US President. Some qualified applicant lost a spot.
March 13th, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
The former is illegal; the latter is not.
March 13th, 2019 at 11:09 AM ^
Same result: Better qualified candidate was denied admission.
Do you also see no difference with football players who are under qualified?
They have more in common with presidents' children than you might think. They have strong extra-curricular qualifications few applicants can match. That's an important component of applications at highly selective schools, which is why coaches were bribed even in minor non-revenue sports..
Schools hope to profit off their attendance and garner PR. Of course, football players can be fully qualified on academics alone as can can presidential children.
Out of all the rich politicians why single out two republicans ? Hmmmmnmnnn
Because the two most recent democratic presidents are a guy who didn't have rich parents to buy him into a school and a rhodes scholar? It wasn't a comment on their politics and it wouldn't be a realistic critique of the two most recent democrats.
Hmmm..maybe because they were under-achieving but had rich, powerful fathers who leveraged their connections to get them into elite schools they had no business going to? I think you missed the point. He's not biased, he's speaking the truth.
This doesn't apply to all GOPers (Romney is brilliant and high-achieving in his own right and McCain, while connected from birth, still worked hard and served his country with honor and distinction). What Dems would this apply to though? You're implying that some on the Democratic side have benefitted from such a rigged system, right? But who exactly?
b/c al gore was only V.P.?
March 13th, 2019 at 12:07 PM ^
YEs - Gore was a rich kid of privilege born into a political family but I also thought of him as somewhat intelligent, if not boring. He certainly had opportunities others didn't because of his connections but I don't think he was out of his depth the way Bush/Trump were. Gore was more in the Romney mold - born with connections but pretty smart and accomplished on his own.Gore was basically a technocrat - an intelligent dullard.
March 13th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
There's a reason they call it the stupid party these days. And that comes from Max Boot.
Obama went to Columbia and Harvard, do you think he got in on merit? He admitted his grades sucked.
Sucked? Obama has always maintained that he received a 3.7 from Columbia. That's hardly sucking.
Lawrence Tribe said Obama was the most impressive first-year student he ever had, so it's pretty safe to say he was admitted on merit.
curious why he never released his records, his admissions, all that jazz. we saw gore's, W's, a few others, but not obama's. unless i missed it, all discussions about obama's grades would be just guessing.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:25 PM ^
Hmmmm....I don’t know the answer to your question. Maybe if you tell me the answer, you could be the decider. ;-)
March 12th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
Especially since donating $6 million would enable you to get a department or endowed chair named after you, and your kid would then have his entrance greased legally up front.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
I know how bribes work. I bribe people all the time.
March 12th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
We should be able to figure out something that you'd be willing to bribe me for.
Bribe Brian to fix this Drupalboard
Man, those last dozen words sound sorta ........ wrong.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:59 AM ^
Rather than ask how stupid the kids are, I'd just conclude that for some people $6M isn't much money.
March 12th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
For real and I would imagine and maybe I'm wrong here but if they made a donation of say 1/3 of that 6 mill that probably would have been enough to get the kid admitted.
$6 million was a big overpay compared to the other numbers. Might have been from someone that schools wouldn't take money from. That's probably a small group, but sometimes there's bad PR that comes with donations.
I wonder if some of the other parents chose to cheat, not to save money, but hoping people would think their kids got in on their own merits. Possibly including the kids.
March 12th, 2019 at 12:39 PM ^
Jesus H Christ.....if you have 6 million to throw around, just cut the school a huge donation check for a new dorm hall and buy your kid's way into the school that way.
The parents paid $250-400k per student, $6 million is the total sum of all payouts that law enforcement was able to track.
so it’s a cheaper price than trying to donate millions to a school like Stanford to get your kid admitted.
More like, how stupid does a parent have to be to pony up 6M for a kid to get into college?
I had a class in high school with a former Michigan player, won’t say who. The kid was dumb as f**king rocks. He had a D in Spanish 2 as a junior, I was a sophomore barely trying with an A-. He got a full ride to Michigan. I know full well that he had a C or D in every basic class he was in. Nice kid but just so stupid. He was a 3 star just FYI, not even like he was a top 10-20 player is my point.
I went to Northwestern with more than a few kids like that. Only 2 didn’t make it academically through NU similar to Tate Forcier. It happens everywhere. I was always surprised when female athletes had those kinds of grades because my bias back then was that female athletes at NU were all smart.
Go look at Lori Laughlins daughters you tube page where she talks about college as a place to party and go to games but not for anything such as school work.
I think the relevant point is that they're paying exorbitant bribes to get into an elite college. I think it's fair to say that Harvard or Yale isn't for everybody, regardless of how wealthy your parents are.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
The level of cheating that goes on in High Schools and colleges is astronomical.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:14 AM ^
Yeah just ask the ref from last Saturday’s Championship game. His kids need an education too.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:24 AM ^
Championship? You mean regular season game?
March 12th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Considering whoever won that game would have been Big Ten champion, it's probably not a stretch to call it a championship game.
I have done some HAIL interviews for the College of Engineering. One student from a local highly rated high school gave me a ton of detail about how much cheating there is. It's pretty gross, but a good warning to make sure I'm giving my kids the right priorities. If getting into Michigan (or whatever high end college) now means cheating in high school and / or taking a silly amount of classes outside of the normal high school curriculum, I would take a pass.
I was a horrid student in high school and still got into Michigan.
March 12th, 2019 at 11:07 AM ^
“You’re in big trouble, mister “
March 12th, 2019 at 11:12 AM ^
The quote "pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered" is going to come true with college sports. Within the next 5 years, the NCAA will be gone. Once the kids start getting paid legally and it's basically a 2nd Tier pro sports organization, the whole thing is going to go down the tubes. People like me who once lived and breathed this stuff are becoming apathetic to the whole thing because of the rampant corruption and cheating.