Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CollegeCheatingScandal
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Here's someone saying the quiet part loud.
Unfortunately, some folks seem to object to making college truly accessible because they understand the value of their own education is in how exclusive it is.
Unfortunately, some folks seem to object to making college truly accessible because they understand the value of their own education is in how exclusive it is.
But your ability to thrive in society should't depend on your admittance to a fancy 40K+ school.
People take out debt to go to "competitive" schools bc it does make a difference re career opportunities-- so much so that even the rich cheat. #collegecheatingscandal
People take out debt to go to "competitive" schools bc it does make a difference re career opportunities-- so much so that even the rich cheat. #collegecheatingscandal
Working class people or people from first generation college families are told that this is the path to accessing the American dream. Then the second we do, we're told we were idiots for thinking we deserved to sit in the same classrooms with rich kids -- getting the same access.
THREAD: I'm a huge advocate of college journalism -- hard not to be when it led me to where I am today. Given the #CollegeCheatingScandal, I wanted to see how college newsrooms were reporting on their own universities. There's so much more to this than Aunt Becky.
First s/o goes to @thedailytexan which put together this form for students from low-income, first-gen families about HOW THEY GOT to college: dailytexanonline.com/2019/03/14/fir…
The staff also had thorough coverage of its university's tennis coach, who is accused of accepting $100,000 to put a student on the tennis team who had never played the sport. dailytexanonline.com/2019/03/12/mic…
#CollegeCheatingScandal
My thoughts
I’ve said for a long time there is an amazing societal convergence that sees the peak of materialism, elitism, and need to be recognized all at the same time.
My thoughts
I’ve said for a long time there is an amazing societal convergence that sees the peak of materialism, elitism, and need to be recognized all at the same time.
Anything that can add to the façade of prestige and importance from photos in front of private jets to post on Instagram to the surge of plastic surgery procedures including 200,000 teens last year.
And many parents have gotten into the action which might explain their fixation on getting their children into an Ivy League school at any cost. Anyone can get a lift or a tuck but consider 16 US presidents including the last five attended an Ivy League school.
1. If you want your blood boiling, read this FBI affidavit in the #CollegeCheatingScandal. A few top excerpts to follow....
justice.gov/file/1142876/d…
justice.gov/file/1142876/d…
2....I think one of the big things here is that parents are talking about how their rich kids are too stupid to succeed on their own, and the kids don't know this is being done for them.... 
3...the lead guy said he had done this 761 times. For at least seven elite schools...
1/ What is especially enraging about this #CollegeCheatingScandal is that, as the father of a HS junior, taking tests and looking at colleges, I know how cut throat this stuff is...it's ridiculous...
2/ Our oldest daughter is an excellent student and has really good test scores (so clearly she was switched in the hospital cuz neither her mom nor I can claim that), but the fact is, it's a crap shoot and we've told her that...
3/ Most selective colleges turn away enough highly qualified students to fill out their freshman classes 3x over...so we prepare our daughter for the reality of the situation. She could get in to all, some or none of her top choice schools...
A thread on the ways in which the latest college admission scam is not exceptional but rather business as usual for institutions built for elites through the extraction of Indigenous land and Black labor
Harvard, Dartmouth, William and Mary, Hamilton, and Princeton among others were all founded on the philanthropic ideations of “entrepreneurs and gentlemen” looking to turn a profit on the capitalist ventures of “civilizing Indians.”
Harvard, for ex., was founded in 1636 without a single building, teacher, or student and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy until Harvard President Henry Dunster drafted the College’s “papers of incorporation” in 1650.
I read the 204-page affidavit filed in the #CollegeCheatingScandal.
An FBI agent laid out exactly what happened. Here's a summary:
1. This college bribery scam started in 2001 and has NOT YET ENDED.
It is described as "continuing through the present."
An FBI agent laid out exactly what happened. Here's a summary:
1. This college bribery scam started in 2001 and has NOT YET ENDED.
It is described as "continuing through the present."
2. The fraud involved 3 parts:
- bribing SAT/ACT test administrators to facilitate cheating on those exams;
- bribing varsity coaches & administrators at top universities to get students deemed as "recruited" athletes;
- masking the bribes as tax-deductible charity donations
- bribing SAT/ACT test administrators to facilitate cheating on those exams;
- bribing varsity coaches & administrators at top universities to get students deemed as "recruited" athletes;
- masking the bribes as tax-deductible charity donations
3. The FBI has a mountain of evidence -- bank records, e-mails, phone records, wiretaps, consensual recordings + witnesses, etc. -- but it is not yet revealing all it knows.
The agent's affidavit said she is disclosing "only those facts sufficient to
establish probable cause."
The agent's affidavit said she is disclosing "only those facts sufficient to
establish probable cause."
They bribed proctors at 2 high schools--a private HS in LA and a public in Houston--and he either told the proctors how to correct the exam after the test or sometimes he flew in and took the test himself.
More on how they worked this scam: they'd get the family to secure (the very rare) extension (e.g., double time) that let the kid take the test over two days, typically by themselves, at school. Then they'd make up a reason to travel to Houston or LA and take the exam there.
Riddell would proctor or correct or take the exam himself for the clients who paid between $10k-$75k. The kids didn't know about the cheating--as seen in this comment by Singer to a client.
