The truth about applying to college is that it can be different for everyone. As a 17 year old, I’m currently going through this process myself, and the whole nature of it can seem a bit strenuous. Firstly, you have to come up with a list of schools that cater to your interests, while also considering the fact that attending these institutions can be very costly. For some people, building a college list can be a slow-moving process, and once this list is fully assembled, the real work begins.
Once you provide general information about yourself, you have to write a series of essays in order to show these schools your character, and ultimately, why they should give you a spot at their college. While this can be an enjoyable experience the first time around, it becomes mundane rapidly, and by the time a 10th essay rolls in, slamming your head into a desk seems like the only viable solution to all your struggles.
Time goes by, and eventually, your college essays are complete. All that’s left is to apply for financial aid, revise your application, and hit submit. You’re done! However, spring comes around, and you find out that your dream college rejected you.
What if I told you that someone payed to take your spot?
Impossible. Surely, colleges would make sure that each applicant receives an equal opportunity to get into their school, right? Well, this was proven false by a scandal that arose over a criminal conspiracy that involving influencing undergraduate admission decisions at top universities across the country. The case, which was codenamed Operation Varsity Blues, was made public in March, 2019.
Reportedly, the conspiracy began in 2011, when 33 parents conspired to find ways of illegally arranging admittance for their children at the following universities: Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, University of San Diego, USC (California), UT Austin, Wake Forest, and Yale.
A businessman by the name of Morrie Tobin shared information in the early developments of the investigation, detailing that Yale’s women’s soccer head coach had asked Tobin for 450 thousand dollars in exchange for helping his daughter gain admission into the school. Meredith ended up pleasing guilty to the accusation, and later on, a criminal complaint charging 50 people to committing felony mail fraud was unsealed by Boston prosecutors.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud; honest services wire fraud — official charges listed against Rudolph Meredith, justice.gov
Who organized this scheme?
Allegedly, William Singer, a 58 year-old from California, used two methods to help his rich client’s children get into these universities: fabricating sports credentials and cheating on college exams.
The first method involved Singer paying athletic coaches to label applicants under “athletes”, even though they weren’t truly athletes. For example, someone would be accepted into a school as a member of the rowing team, when they had actually never rowed before in their life. The conspiracists even went as far as photoshopping applicants within sporting photos, using their face on someone else’s body, and claiming that it was them engaging in the activity.
The second method was more straightforward: Singer did everything in his power to maximize student’s scores on standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT. This even included giving access to accommodations that didn’t suit the applicants, such as extra testing time under the impression of a “learning disability”, made believable by fake disability reports.
Racketeering conspiracy; money laundering conspiracy; conspiracy to defraud US; obstruction of justice — official charges listed against William Singer, justice.gov
Why this matters and what can do about it
As I said earlier in a hypothetical sense, someone payed for your spot at a college. Obviously, this is illegal. But, most of us don’t need laws to determine good from bad. Laws are for criminals to follow, not the average person. How did some people get to a position in their life in which they had the ability to bypass the competitive nature of college applications, at the expense of the general population?
Unfortunately, this traces back to racial disparities in income. The following graph quantifies how incomes have changed within 5 racial & ethnic groups in America, while also mapping out their future earnings trajectories. The five groups included in the research done by Raj Chetty, Nathan Hendren, Maggie Jones, and Sonya Porter of Voxeu.org are: Whites, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians, and Blacks.
As depicted, Whites have the highest rate of upward income mobility across generations, followed by Asians and Hispanics. On the other hand, Blacks and Indians have lower rates of upward mobility. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the clients in the organized conspiracy were rich and white, so how do we eliminate the possibility of certain groups of people having a systemic advantage altogether?
Well, policies that can improve the single-generation economic outcome, like cash transfers, minimum wage increases, and universal basic income programs, can help narrow the racial disparity in America.
Initiatives whose impacts cross neighborhood and class lines and increase upward mobility specifically for black men hold the greatest promise of narrowing the black-white gap — Voxeu.org
An example of some of these initiatives include mentoring programs, reducing racial bias in criminal justice, and more.
We shouldn’t be in this position today. But we are, and we must all contribute to the efforts against these discrepancies, because everyone deserves a fair chance at college, and no one is entitled to having a higher-status in society if it wasn’t earned through their own hard work.
