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Post by peano on Mar 12, 2019 15:15:44 GMT
In College Entrance Bribery Scheme From WaPo: linkThe Justice Department on Tuesday charged more than 30 people — including two television stars — with being part of a long-running scheme to bribe and cheat to get their kids into big-name colleges and universities. The alleged crimes, according to officials, involved cheating on entrance exams, as well as bribing college officials to say certain students were coming to compete on athletic teams when those students were not in fact athletes. Among those charged are actresses Felicity Huffman, best known for her role on the television show “Desperate Housewives,” and Lori Loughlin, who appeared on “Full House,” according to court documents. Authorities said the crimes date back to 2011, and the defendants used “bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission” to numerous college and universities, including Georgetown, Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of California Los Angleles, among others. Some of the 32 defendants are accused of bribing administrators to facilitate cheating on college-entrance exams — by having a smarter student take the test, providing students with answers to exams or correcting their answers after they had completed the exams, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court. Others allegedly bribed university athletic coaches and administrators to designate applicants as “purported athletic recruits — regardless of their athletic abilities, and in some cases, even though they did not play the sport they were purportedly recruited to play — thereby facilitating their admission to universities in place of more qualified applicants,” the complaint charges. Huffman is accused of paying $15,000 — disguised as a charitable donation — to the Key Worldwide Foundation so her oldest daughter could participate in the scam. A confidential informant told investigators that he told Huffman he could arrange for a third party to correct her daughter’s answers on the SAT after she took it. She ended up scoring a 1420 — 400 points higher than she had gotten on a PSAT taken a year earlier, according to court documents. Huffman also contemplated running a similar scam to help her younger daughter, but ultimately did not pursue it, the complaint alleges.
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Post by mikklynn on Mar 12, 2019 15:17:39 GMT
Awesome.
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Post by busy on Mar 12, 2019 15:24:54 GMT
Not at all surprised.
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Post by mom on Mar 12, 2019 15:27:52 GMT
Wow. I am surprised Felicity Huffman was involved. I always thought of her as upstanding? Not sure what I actually based that on though.
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Post by ~summer~ on Mar 12, 2019 15:27:52 GMT
Wow
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hutchfan
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,037
Jul 6, 2016 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by hutchfan on Mar 12, 2019 15:38:41 GMT
William H. Macy (Felicity's husband) was on The Talk last week bragging about how smart his daughter's are and the college's they got into.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Mar 29, 2024 14:08:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2019 15:39:50 GMT
Since Trump’s father gave the university of Pennsylvania and boatload of money so trump could graduate , there is no reason why other rich people wouldn’t do the same thing.
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Post by LuvAgoodPaddle on Mar 12, 2019 15:41:00 GMT
Does this really surprise anyone? I know the CA schools have a pretty low acceptance rate, so it sure doesn’t surprise me that those with money found a way.
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Belle
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,309
Jun 28, 2014 4:39:12 GMT
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Post by Belle on Mar 12, 2019 15:46:08 GMT
I assumed wealthy people got their kids into elite colleges by “donating” to the school. Honestly, $15,000 isn’t a lot of money if it gets you into Stanford! I bet some people spend that much on test prep courses and tutors for their high schoolers.
Interesting that Felicity Huffman paid some organization to improve her kids test scores but it wasn’t the College Board. Wonder how this other organization was involved in testing?
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mallie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,253
Jul 3, 2014 18:13:13 GMT
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Post by mallie on Mar 12, 2019 15:50:02 GMT
I honestly cannot imagine why anyone would be surprised.
Time honored practice of donation = admission.
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Post by bc2ca on Mar 12, 2019 15:51:04 GMT
Since Trump’s father gave the university of Pennsylvania and boatload of money so trump could graduate , there is no reason why other rich people wouldn’t do the same thing. Buying your way into a private college is one thing. Not right, IMHO, but they have always let wealthy and legacy students take priority over academically qualified students. I'm so disheartened to see SDSU and UCLA were on the list of colleges. Both are part of the state system and brutally hard to get admission into even when academically qualified.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Mar 29, 2024 14:08:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2019 15:54:31 GMT
TMZ is reporting: The alleged scam was reportedly unearthed after authorities found a California businessman who ran an operation helping students get into the college of their choice. Authorities say parents would pay the man a predetermined amount which he would funnel to an SAT or ACT administrator or a college athletic coach. The feds say if the money went to a college coach ... the coach would arrange a fake profile that listed the student as an athlete. If the money went to an exam administrator, the administrator would either hire a proctor to take the SAT/ACT or correct the student's answers. www.tmz.com/2019/03/12/felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin-arrested-college-admissions-bribery-scam/This is infuriating, but not surprising.
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NoWomanNoCry
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,856
Jun 25, 2014 21:53:42 GMT
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Post by NoWomanNoCry on Mar 12, 2019 15:56:38 GMT
Not surprised at all.
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,532
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Mar 12, 2019 15:57:24 GMT
I'm absolutely, totally obsessed with this story.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Mar 12, 2019 16:00:33 GMT
Since Trump’s father gave the university of Pennsylvania and boatload of money so trump could graduate , there is no reason why other rich people wouldn’t do the same thing. Buying your way into a private college is one thing. Not right, IMHO, but they have always let wealthy and legacy students take priority over academically qualified students. I'm so disheartened to see SDSU and UCLA were on the list of colleges. Both are part of the state system and brutally hard to get admission into even when academically qualified. Agreed. Large donations directly to a school are not uncommon. Where this is different is that it is a scam being run by individual(s) that collects the money then finds corrupt SAT/ACT administrators and college coaches. While it is disheartening to see U of Texas on the list, I'm not really surprised. It is pretty much impossible for an average student to get into UT-Austin (a state school) their first year. You get a diehard alumni parent with money and these things can/will happen. ETA: Local news (Houston) is reporting two local people are named in the indictment. An assistant teacher at a Houston public high school, who is also an administrator for the College Board & ACT, as well as the president of a local tennis school and camp. Both have been accused of accepting bribes.
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Post by mellyw on Mar 12, 2019 16:01:24 GMT
I’m not surprised so much, but I just listened to the press conference. And the details are pretty alarming, just how much fraud was involved.
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Post by LuvAgoodPaddle on Mar 12, 2019 16:04:22 GMT
While I won’t be totally shocked if there are “dirty” SAT/ACT proctors, I do wonder how they get away with it. I’m pretty sure my son had some big hoops to jump through to prove he was the one taking the test. Don’t they check ID mutiple times and have to upload photo ID too? This should seriously put the whole SAT/ACT under some major scrutiny. Especially if someone within is changing answers.
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Belle
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,309
Jun 28, 2014 4:39:12 GMT
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Post by Belle on Mar 12, 2019 16:07:38 GMT
Sad to say, those kids are going to pay the price for this, most likely will effect their careers and other areas of their lives too.
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Post by ~summer~ on Mar 12, 2019 16:10:59 GMT
Agree it will affect the kids but I wouldn’t think they likely didn’t know what was going on.
There are going to be a lot of ramifications from this...
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Post by busy on Mar 12, 2019 16:12:17 GMT
Agree it will affect the kids but I wouldn’t think they likely didn’t know what was going on. There are going to be a lot of ramifications from this... I don't know... when the kid has a 400 point jump in their SAT score, they might be a little suspicious.
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Post by stampnscrap1128 on Mar 12, 2019 16:13:36 GMT
William H. Macy (Felicity's husband) was on The Talk last week bragging about how smart his daughter's are and the college's they got into. It's ironic that he stars in Showtime's tv series, "Shameless."
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Post by missfrenchjessica on Mar 12, 2019 16:22:04 GMT
While I won’t be totally shocked if there are “dirty” SAT/ACT proctors, I do wonder how they get away with it. I’m pretty sure my son had some big hoops to jump through to prove he was the one taking the test. Don’t they check ID mutiple times and have to upload photo ID too? This should seriously put the whole SAT/ACT under some major scrutiny. Especially if someone within is changing answers. The students absolutely DO have to upload a picture of themselves: straight on, no smiling etc. My daughter just had to do it when she registered to take her SATs later this year. I'm betting they had the 'stand in' take the picture etc. and possibly provided false id to present at the exam. This stinks all the way around.
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Post by hop2 on Mar 12, 2019 16:22:04 GMT
Ok that’s a pretty small list of people imho
I’ve always known Huge donations by rich people = thier kids get into that college. It’s just the way stuff has always happened.
The cheating on tests though is a new wrinkle. I’m not ‘surprised’ surprised but more shocked that the test scores are still needed after the mega ‘donation’ was made. I kinda thought the mega donation was because their kids needed a bit of help getting in and the donation makes thectest scores not matter. I mean these people have the money to send thier kids to college so I was assuming that the donation was for admission.
What do I know though I’m not rich.
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Post by Leone on Mar 12, 2019 16:22:11 GMT
Well, I listened to the entire news conference. Supposedly, parents paid between $100k and $6.5 million.
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Post by Leone on Mar 12, 2019 16:23:31 GMT
It involves coaches taking bribes too besides the cheating on SATs and ATC,
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Post by ~summer~ on Mar 12, 2019 16:28:04 GMT
It involves coaches and administrators at schools as well as administrators at the college board (the SAT) according to the article I read. This is a huge story. We are up to our eyeballs in college applications right now so I’m also a bit obsessed....
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
Jun 26, 2014 23:58:32 GMT
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Post by sassyangel on Mar 12, 2019 16:30:26 GMT
Does this really surprise anyone? I know the CA schools have a pretty low acceptance rate, so it sure doesn’t surprise me that those with money found a way. Not surprised in the least. The only thing that does surprise me is that there wasn’t more charged. 30 seems a drop in the bucket.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Mar 29, 2024 14:08:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2019 16:35:31 GMT
Not surprised in the least. The only thing that does surprise me is that there wasn’t more charged. 30 seems a drop in the bucket. I wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've always wondered how colleges verify all the achievements listed by their applicants. For instance, DS volunteered over 200 service hours at a local disability center; but what prevents someone who never did any service from claiming the same thing?
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Post by annie on Mar 12, 2019 16:37:48 GMT
I'm obsessed with this story too! Crazy! Takes what we knew probably happens to a whole new level! Very timely as we find out over the next few weeks whether my daughter got into some elite schools based on her brains, not our money.
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Post by LuvAgoodPaddle on Mar 12, 2019 16:38:57 GMT
While I won’t be totally shocked if there are “dirty” SAT/ACT proctors, I do wonder how they get away with it. I’m pretty sure my son had some big hoops to jump through to prove he was the one taking the test. Don’t they check ID mutiple times and have to upload photo ID too? This should seriously put the whole SAT/ACT under some major scrutiny. Especially if someone within is changing answers. The students absolutely DO have to upload a picture of themselves: straight on, no smiling etc. My daughter just had to do it when she registered to take her SATs later this year. I'm betting they had the 'stand in' take the picture etc. and possibly provided false id to present at the exam. This stinks all the way around. It's been a few years and now I do remember this. So if they have a stand in take the photo, how does the school ID match up in person on the day of testing? That would mean the stand in has a false school ID too? My brain just cannot think figure out how they could get away with this part since there would be so many layers of people involved. The donation part isn't a big deal to me, because we all know that happens all the time. But the SAT/ACT testing not being secure is huge! Hasn't there been times the test questions were revealed online and they made all the kids retake the test? So what the heck is going to happen now???
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