College Admissions Scheme

     On Tuesday, March 12, fifty people charged participation in either racketeering conspiracy, laundering conspiracy, and/or obstruction of justice. It has been found that from 2011 to 2018, in order to guarantee their child's acceptance into the elite schools, $25 million was put towards cheating on the ACTS and SATS. As well as, bribing college athletic directors into admitting students into schools as division one athletes, when there was no evidence in them participating in the sport at all.
     William Rick Singer was at the core of it all, masking the scheme as a charity fund that would go towards the education of kids who were underprivileged; the Key Worldwide Foundation.  He knew that those who scored high on the standardized tests were more likely to get into elite colleges. Wealthy parents would pay Singer to have a man, Mark Riddel, take and score high on their child's test. And at the same time, the test administrators were being bribed, so Riddel wasn't caught.
      Singer also knew how much of an influence a student's athleticism would have on them getting into an elite school. Singer, using the parent's money, would bribe college athletic departments to sway the admission officers to accept a student as a division one athlete, whether the student really was one or not.
    Among these wealthy parents were celebrities. Lori Loughlin, Becky from Full House, and her husband, fashion designer, Mossimo Giannuli who were charged with mail fraud. They knowingly agreed to pay $500,000 to carry out one of Singer's bribes. Singer bribed USC to accept their two daughters as competitive rowers on their crew team, even though they've never participated in crew.
    As honors students, we work hard every day, with academics, extra-curricular, sports, and volunteering in order to secure the best education for ourselves. And for someone to cheat the system like that, to simply just pay for the merit that comes into getting into an ivy league or top-notch college, while the rest of us are all working for it, is crazy. Especially because this went undetected for 7 years. Not only that but Singer covered it all up, saying that it was a charity for the education of underprivileged kids when they obviously were not. It's not fair and we have the right to be mad.