Is The College Admissions Process Rigged to Favor The Wealthy?

Lydia Beatty, Special to The Big Red

As news of the college admissions cheating scandal arises, more and more people are beginning to question the difference between the wealthy and middle-lower class when sending their kids off to college. Unfortunately, the difference is quite drastic, and news of this is beginning to take the spotlight.

In a recent scandal, famous star Lori Loughlin, as well as dozens of affluent parents, were found guilty of cheating to get their children placed into prestigious universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA.

Parents reportedly paid proctors of the SAT exams to assist their children in taking the exams and helped them cheat. Various parents also bribed athletic coaches of top colleges to put their children in sports, where in most cases many of the children had never played the sport a day in their life. While others posed for fake pictures of them playing the sport, some went as far as photo shopping themselves to cheat the system.

Despite the reprehensible fraud, there is one thing that is not seen to the public eye, and that is wealthy people making generous donations to universities.

In 2014, a hedge fund billionaire, Steven A. Cohen donated five million dollars to the University of Southern California through his foundation, one of the biggest donations received by the school.

All seemed normal except for the fact that his two twin daughters, were quickly admitted into the school. Regarding the fact that this is one of the top stories for this legal crime, there are several wealthy parents that donate just to get their child accepted. The donation is recognized, but the reason behind it isn’t.

Even though this is a legal way to guarantee admittance to a school, it is morally wrong and proves that the system is rigged. In these situations, the college admissions officers are not directly paid, making it legal. This is why wealthy people have been able to get away with the same crime, but under the radar.

The recent bust of this elaborate scheme has brought light to the awareness of what has been happening with these competitive colleges. Denied applicants are now reportedly filing lawsuits against the colleges because these wealthy applicants illegally took the spots in colleges.

These people who were rejected from colleges connected to the scandal were just as hardworking and gifted as many of the others students in schools such as Harvard and Yale. In fact, there are several cases where students originally were accepted, but were taken off the list before they could be informed that they made it, just to make room for the cheating students.

Students who have worked hard to maintain their grades and high scholarly status were denied top schools, something that should not be happening. Now, we will have to wait and see what will happen to the admissions process. A system that has been knowingly rigged for decades and decades on end.