I collected a bunch of links on the college entrance collusion

[conuly]

and now that everybody's done talking about it I'm gonna post them.

How I Would Cover the College-Admissions Scandal as a Foreign Correspondent

Now that we see what stealing a college slot really looks like, can we stop making students of color feel like frauds?

Elite Colleges Constantly Tell Low-Income Students That They Do Not Belong

How’d You Get Your Kid Into an Ivy?

Bribery scandal exposes sports side door to admissions

I Learned in College That Admission Has Always Been for Sale

Why The College Admissions Scandal Hurts Students With Disabilities

The Filthy Tragedy of Operation Varsity Blues

Ex-Yale Law admissions dean: These are the victims of cheating scandal I worry about

Ignorance Was Bliss for the Children of the College-Admissions Scandal

Wait, How Did You Get Into College?

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

Bloody hell on that link about the university paying poor students to clean toilets and the separate entrances for students with discounted tickets. I went to one of the most famous universities in my home country, and while there was all sorts of snobbery, if they'd tried that there would have been riots.

[conuly]

No student jobs in your country?

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, but not acting as personal servants to richer students!

[topaz_eyes]

All last week, watching the shenanigans unfold, I'd been wavering between wanting popcorn and Pepto-Bismol. There must be more involved than these 50 people, and not just in the US.

[conuly]

There are definitely more than just 50 people buying those services, and the rest are either quaking in their boots or blissfully operating as though they're safe and have dodged that bullet for good.

[negothick]

When the news broke, I did a Google search on "college admission consultants," and got an entire screen of sponsored ads from such service providers and bout 25 million hits. For every one who gets caught, 25 million spring up in his place. . .

[conuly]

The whole field is irrecovably corrupt, because it shouldn't exist and shouldn't have to. However, since it does exist, some of them play within the rules, some bend them a little or a lot, and some outright cheat. It's the last group we're trying to shut down, I think.

[zesty_pinto]

I think what adds insult to injury is how it's not just a gateway for the privileged, but also where the most money tends to get invested for institutions.

It might be my experience at Rutgers that colors it, but my god, it was like everything deserved a second seat to the almighty greatness that is sportsball: especially football.

[conuly]

Oh, god, yes. And what really kills is that not only do the big sports unbalance the schools, but - as always! - overprivileged rich kids get an advantage because they play a wider range of sports. A lot of those schools offer preferential admissions for all sorts of minor sports played primarily by the wealthy - like lacrosse, crew, fencing, and so on. A poor kid might be able to manage a scholarship on the basis of football or basketball or track, or even swimming if they had access to a public swim team growing up, but even if they had the culture to allow them access to crew (or whatnot) - these are expensive hobbies! That's a lot of time and effort into something that might not pay off and isn't likely to be promoted by their public school or parks department.