2 years in jail for this is absurd. A week would be more than enough.
A week?! If I was interested in this kind of scheme, a week wouldn't deter me at all.
L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
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Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#22What is criminal about this? I never heard of someone going to jail for cheating on an SAT test.
And why aren't the admissions boards going to jail for accepting the bribes?
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#23They're not that elite if they're gonna get ensnared in this one. If you're one of the elite you just donate a building, which is a completely legal way to get your kids into a school of your choice.
Matt Levine's trademark... objectivity? cynicism? is perfect for this.
"It is not about fairness; it is about theft. Selective colleges have admissions spots that they want to award in particular ways. They want to award some based on academic factors; they want to award others based on athletic skill; they want to award others in exchange for cash, but—and this is crucial—really a whole lot of cash. Buildings are not cheap.
...The bribery scheme devalued the asset not only by stealing it and re-selling it for less than it was worth, but also by being so explicitly commercial.
...consultants and coaches are misappropriating the asset and selling it for their own benefit."
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-13/you-ha...
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least donating a building gives value to the other attending students that far outweighs the cost of their child going
What about the kids that didn’t get to go? The ones that the rich students replaced. That’s the real tragedy. The students don’t even know that they were out-moneid.
Why is that a tragedy? So they didn’t go to Yale, Stanford, or USC (?!?). Presumably if they were borderline at those schools they ended up somewhere perfectly fine.
I’m happy these parents are being prosecuted, but I don’t think there were any tragedies here.
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#25They're not that elite if they're gonna get ensnared in this one. If you're one of the elite you just donate a building, which is a completely legal way to get your kids into a school of your choice.
> which is a completely legal way to get your kids into a school of your choice.
It may not defraud the university, but that doesn't make it legal. When a university promises its admissions / grading are fair / based on neutral criteria, but in fact accepts bribes and gives preferential grades... that's also fraud. It's fraud against the students who have are paying for an education which is not what they were sold. Bribing the school makes those parents parties to that fraud. Donating a building (for the purpose of getting your kid into a university) is (usually) a crime.
Edit: That's not to say a University can't acknowledge in its application materials: "Yes, we accept bribes!" However, that may may hurt the business more than operating legally.
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#262 years in jail for this is absurd. A week would be more than enough.
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Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least donating a building gives value to the other attending students that far outweighs the cost of their child going
What about the kids that didn’t get to go? The ones that the rich students replaced. That’s the real tragedy. The students don’t even know that they were out-moneid.
The amount to donate a building probably covers the cost to expand the student capacity of a university by several dozen students. With the donation they could easily afford to accept everyone they otherwise would have accepted and also accept the one rich kid and still come out way on top. So I'd be surprised if they did this -- though not shocked.
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely agree with you. I’m just commenting on the fact that these people should not be let off the hook just because they donate a building.
There is no hook or wrong doing in giving a building. It benefits a lot of people. These folks actually did something illegal. Grouping people who actually gave to the university with people who paid a scam artist is wrong.
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Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#29I feel like the solution here is to not bribe your children's way into school.
If your children aren't academically talented and you don't have the money to publicly buy a building for the school you should accept that and just let them live off your money and power as is traditional.
Re: L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least donating a building gives value to the other attending students that far outweighs the cost of their child going
I reject this - if we want admission in the US to be entirely wealth based and Oligarchic we should just buy that concept whole-hog. Many of us (I hope?) believe that scholarships that allow smart people coming from bad backgrounds to succeed are worth their cost[1] so clearly the ability to make use of your education is part of our general societal motivation to give someone one. [1] There are lots of scholarships,…
In the US the public universities are the only schools that can't be bought into at any cost.