Can someone explain: I thought buying your way into US colleges was normal.

[redgreenandblue]

I never went to a college in the USA. I was always under the impression that anyone can get into one of those "elite" schools and that it basically boiled down to laying down a pile of cash. I mean GW Bush, John Mc Cain, Jared Kushner etc. I now learned that buying your way in is actually illegal Huh?

[BigmanPigman]

1. I think that kind of "traditional cheating" is accepted by our

society and this blatant financial cheating has not been seen at this level before.

[RelativelyJones]

2. Why is John McCain in your list?

[madaboutharry]

10. McCain come from a family of Navy Admirals.

There was no chance that he would be rejected by Annapolis. Where by the way, he was a terrible student. At least McCain admitted he graduated near the bottom of his class.

[happybird]

3. I think the difference here is the third party involvement

and the cheating on the SATs. Usually it's done by making a big donation to the school or their alumni society, with no middleman. No need to cheat on tests when you do it that way.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if someone in one of the schools' power structure was the whistle blower. After all, the involved parties were siphoning away that sweet "donation" cash from the school, itself.

[DFW]

4. It seems that a plie of cash is the ticket for some, but by no means all

My siblings both got into Harvard (I didn't) and no cash other than tuition ever got "laid down" anywhere. Sometimes, just being really smart is enough. Considering some of the idiots in my senior class that DID get into Harvard, I know that at least one was picked because he could play football. So-called "elite" schools can't remain that way if all they do is admit rich idiots. There HAVE to be a number of genuinely smart students among them.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. What strikes me as funny is the simple logic is that if these

"elite" colleges were indeed, "elite", getting in without the proper credentials would doom you to failure anyway.

The fact that they didn't "flunk out" just reinforced my suspicion that the ivy league is all bullshit anyway.

I am a scientist/engineer and went to an engineering college. Liberal Arts degrees from Ivy League schools have never impressed me.

[DFW]

14. My nephew might agree with you.

He went to Columbia for undergrad, but did his doctorate in Engineering at Stanford, and stayed out there. Our family never had money to splash around, so he got in on his merits, and got some assistance along the way. My brother majored in mathematics at Harvard, and now does hi tech projects for DARPA.

On the other hand, my liberal arts degree from Penn did keep me from being drafted as csnnon fodder for Nixon in Vietnam, and the stuff I learned on the side while there (German, Russian, Swedish) turned out to be part of the base knowledge I used as a springboard for the job I eventually took. While I can't go into detail, it affords me more travel, a more flexible schedule, and more salary than my brother and his sons combined, so it was useful, if not necessarily impressive. It also helped me gain a wife, as she knew little English when we first met. We still speak German with each other, and our children are 100% bilingual.

As for getting into "elite" colleges without "elite" academic credentials, Harvard, back in the 1970s, anyway, had the rep of being "the hardest to get into, and the hardest to flunk out of." They apparently didn't like admitting to mistakes by their admissions office, so they made sure there weren't any. I have no idea if that has changed in the meantime.

As a contrast, a guy I knew in Philadelphia toward the end of my college years DID flunk out of Penn (not stupid, but lazy) before I had gotten there. He knew he would be drafted, so he voluntarily enlisted in the Air Force and told them he knew Russian (his dad was a Ukrainian Rabbi) and German (he took it in college). The Air Force took note of that (for once!), and sent him to spy school in Syracuse, NY and then stationed him in the party town of West Berlin, where he listened in on the Soviet Air Force by day (some VERY funny stories came from that) and hung out in the folk music clubs at night.

[UniteFightBack]

5. This went even beyond that...it was a guaranteed side door. nt

[Sherman A1]

6. And included tax evasion

Along with wire fraud.

[Vinca]

7. It seems the illegal part is skimming off the grift.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. The wrong people got the money this time.

Some middleman, and some coaches, got the bucks. The universities expect the big bribe, uh, donation, money to come to the dean, the univ president, to buy a building, a wing, a "chair". Then the donor's offspring is given admission to acknowledge the largess.

There are acceptable ways to cheat the system. This was not one of them.

[EarthFirst]

11. The more traditional way is for a legacy to donate a building...

With it of course comes the name on the building and admissions preference to said surname.

[Happyhippychick]

12. It wasn't just about college, he laundered money, there was tax evasion

They not only bought their kids into college, they deducted it from their taxes.

[Lucky Luciano]

13. Donating to the school is ok.

They can make a building, add to a scholarship fund, make a new physics lab, etc. this benefits the school, the students at large, and the professors in return for one moron gaining admittance. You could easily argue that it’s worth it.

OTOH, bribing administrators, coaches, etc while committing fraud on the exams benefits only those coaches, administrators, etc and does nothing for the greater good.

[MineralMan]

15. While many people get into elite universities that way,

most do not. Money and legacy are just a couple of paths to admission. In reality, most students at Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other prestigious schools get in on their own merit. Their GPAs arein the upper 5 percent of their high school class, they have a resume that includes lots of interesting extracurricular activities, and they scored in at least the 95th percentile on the SAT or ACT. The majority of students at those elite schools arrive there with academic scholarships, as well. Money is not the only path to admission. If you are a strong academic achiever with a variety of interests and can afford to attend, either on a scholarship or otherwise, you can be admitted.

But, then, there are all of those state colleges and universities out there, along with a broad assortment of private colleges and universities, too. Anyone with a 3.0+ GPA who isn't a complete dolt can get admitted to one or another of those pretty easily. Getting admitted isn't the problem. Paying for your four years to get a BA or BS in something is the problem.

Still, most students at our top Universities got in on their merit, not by paying someone to get in. If you don't believe me, go to Google and do some searching.