They’re reading 6000-10000 files a year. If you read books by admissions counsellors, they admit they’re swamped by Spring. I can see wondering why they didn’t follow up on the call from the college counsellor, but I can also see it falling though the cracks.
They’re also seeing high SAT scores and assuming they are correct. This is where the big issue is.
I just posted the article to bring the subject back to the college admissions fraud case, and that the BA isn’t immune from such scams. There are likely more cases to be uncovered and universities have a role in upholding the integrity of their operations. I don’t have a strong opinion on case, whether or not you or I think it’s lame.
[quote=“Jane, post:60, topic:6980, full:true”]
I saw their lawsuit as symbolic action at the expense of potential risks you mentioned above.
Thus, I see it as brave behavior.
Universities involved in this bribery scandal are trying hard to present themselves as victims.
However, I hope them to take the responsibility and show the efforts to prevent such fraud.
What kind of admission process cannot even catch such obvious fraud?
Here’s quote from WSJ article.
YES, completely agree. I was just reading about how the lead to convicting Singer in the college bribery scheme came from another fraudster, in a “pump and dump” securities fraud case. Rooting for universities to help clean up their own processes and looking forward to white collar crime rings to fall like a house of cards 
Isn’t the bigger scandal that schools lower the admissions bar for athletes at the expense of denying admission to qualified students? If schools are really an institution of higher learning, then they should admit the most qualified students. They shouldn’t lower the bar for athletes. They aren’t a sports franchise.
It’s not a scandal. Students are admitted into various programs based on their respective achievements and talents, under the framework they report them honestly. There are multiple intelligences.
Why choose to focus on other topics, anyway. I think it’s great that the cheaters were exposed and will be getting their due. Jane was right that the way the SAT/ACT testing was manipulated was through falsified claims of learning disabilities from bribed psychologists. All of these financial transactions were done through fake charity orgs. Some of the parents involved have lost their jobs. I call it getting their due.
Really, water polo is an academic degree program?
No. Just look at the applications. Everyone is expected to go beyond academics in highly competitive college admissions. For someone who has ways to contribute their talents to the college experience (not monetarily) that make that applicant stand far apart from the others, it makes sense to relax the criteria on other measures.
I’m just going to laugh at that one. Wow.
Marcus’s question is why a college or university is valuing a sports team at all. If you accept that a college should value a sports team, it makes sense to admit for the purposes of staffing that team, but if you don’t, then there should be no significant concessions made.
I can see some arguments for it:
It gives alumni something to keep in touch with the college with. Certainly there are people who root for their college teams–Notre Dame comes to mind. (I know Bay Area residents who travel to see the games).
It gives the students something to rally over.
I’m not a sports person, so I don’t identify with this at all. Furthermore, when I was a senior the only senior who got into Stanford was the track guy who I’m pretty sure was just an average student, so maybe it’s personal.
And the argument against is that colleges are about academics, not sports.
“The central mission of the University of Southern California is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. The principal means by which our mission is accomplished are teaching, research, artistic creation, professional practice and selected forms of public service.”
I’m not seeing winning sports teams anywhere in the mission statement or even sports teams at all. Also, it’s very different to provide sports as an opportunity vs lowering the academic bar for athletes. They are universities not pro sports franchises.
Ok, I see. Yes, I think a lot of universities do value sports for the reasons you gave and more. The idea is to value the unique talents and skills which each student can contribute to the college experience. They also value leadership, creativity, community service, etc. For the most sought after schools, they have plenty of top notch applicants to choose from, and they want to enroll a multi-dimensional student body.
Cal was losing $150m a year on sports. They could spend that to reduce class sizes by hiring more faculty or lower tuition for students.
Ouch. That or the $238M of upgrades could have bought a lot of classroom and lab upgrades.
A little dated but only 24 schools have athletic departments that are financially positive. Regular students paying tuition are helping fund it. The salaries of athletic staff are more than 2x the value of athletic scholarships given out. Just another expense driving up the cost of college tuition. Now Derrick more classes than ever are taught by TAs and adjunct faculty. They have to pay the coaches.
The issue is: Is there a hidden discrimination agenda? Are the current practices contradicting the goal of education? Fair and equitable access?
Although bribery scheme was very serious crime affecting many students, I see marcus’ point as an another issue to discuss as well.
I have been wondering about why American colleges are so much obsessed with athletic talents/experiences to choose students who want to study CS, pre-med, business etc.
On top of that, pretty large portion of other student’s tuition go to support athletic programs in college.
In Korea, if the kid has athletic talent and gets accepted through sports recruit then, that kids is accepted under sports-related major only. Otherwise, he/she must go through the same admission process with others.
My another question is also about Holistic review system.
In ideal world, this may be a good admission process.
However, it is more vulnerable to bribery scheme than “simple score/GPA(whatever quantitative measure) based admission”.
Now, the last but not least problem is cheating in standardized test such as SAT/ACT.
Both SAT/ACT often recycle tests(without shuffling!) within 2-year time frame.
This shows how little they pay attention to avoid potential cheating.
I was totally shocked when I learned about this.
Maybe, it sounds harsh, but in Korea, there is only one standardized test in a year and only Senior (or older) can take it. No exception. If they are not accepted to the school they want, many of them take gap year, take the test and apply to college again.
People who prepare the test live together in the hidden area for a month or so and stay there until the test date without any personal phone or internet connection (yes, they get paid a lot.).
Maybe, Korean case is too extreme but it is time for college board / ACT to show their side efforts to prevent such cheating/bribery scheme.
WTF??? That is 3000 students tuition at $50K/yr!!!
Have you noticed that kids go on service trips now so that they can check off the “community service” box? Once it was something that made you stand out, now everyone does it so they can put it on a college application.
Kids are pretty maxed out nowadays trying to fill every box these college admissions officers want to see. It’d be better if they could just be themselves.
In office too 
Facebook will now evaluate employees on whether they help solve ‘social issues’
Singaporeans won’t have any issues with the sports and community service at all. All secondary/ pre-U (middle school to high school) needs to have ECA (extra curriculum activities).
In China and many parts of Asia that’s the norm. Everything is decided by one exam. As a result most people have confidence in the fairness of the system.
However the creativity of the entire student body suffers. If we measure everything by one metric all resources will be spent on advancing that one single metric. For whatever fault we see in American colleges, we can’t deny they are the best in the world. We produce the most and the best researches.
On the micro, individual level, exams may be fairer. On the macro, society level, the holistic approach may actually be better overall.