This case just annoys me - this is hardly justice - she will probably be released due good behavior or covid in 2 weeks. The amount of tax payer money that went into investigating and prosecuting the case far outweigh the reward here.
Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
101–110 of 120 posts
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#102I have a very hard time getting even remotely upset about the college bribery scandal when it's both legal and encouraged for the truly rich to get their failsons 'legacy admissions' at selective colleges by donating multiple millions to the institutions. The people who have been prosecuted as part of this scandal aren't being prosecuted for devaluing earned degrees at selective colleges; they're being prosecuted for…
I don't think this is a fair comparison. It's like complaining that I got in trouble for bribing the guard at the Ferrari dealership to look the other way when I drove off with a Ferrari, while the truly rich are allowed to just stroll in and pay the owner. The point is not that you mustn't get a college entrance by paying people for it, but that you must pay the right people. If you donate two million to the univers…
The difference is that the Ferrari isn't going to affect the rest of your life. It's mostly an ego/luxury item. Maybe it will help you make a sale if you're a real estate agent or something like that, but other than that if you didn't get the Ferrari, your life wouldn't really be affected. College on the other hand is way more important.
> Being against the rich paying their way in is one thing, but this scandal isn't the same thing as that.
So as long as it's legal it's okay.
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think this is a fair comparison. It's like complaining that I got in trouble for bribing the guard at the Ferrari dealership to look the other way when I drove off with a Ferrari, while the truly rich are allowed to just stroll in and pay the owner. The point is not that you mustn't get a college entrance by paying people for it, but that you must pay the right people. If you donate two million to the univers…
The difference is that the Ferrari isn't going to affect the rest of your life. It's mostly an ego/luxury item. Maybe it will help you make a sale if you're a real estate agent or something like that, but other than that if you didn't get the Ferrari, your life wouldn't really be affected. College on the other hand is way more important. > Being against the rich paying their way in is one thing, but this scandal isn'…
To this reader, 'its actually much more important than a Ferrari' weakens your argument for legalizing bribing college officials for admission
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#104Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yeah, it feels more like they're getting punished for getting a discount and not giving the universities the bribe directly. What do you think the word "bribe" means? Paying money for a service (admission to a university) is not a bribe. Exchanging money for services is literally how the entire economy works. Paying an agent of an organization money to subvert their organization's processes and steal from their emp…
The university pretends to have one admissions process, but quietly has another. It’s the subversion of their supposedly established process that makes it bribe like. Particularly when it’s money as a lever to get things in your favor. In the quiet admissions process if you give them enough money they’ll act in your favor, but none of this is public or official and they pretend they’re not doing this at the same time…
I spent a brief time in university admissions. There are lots of “side doors” - and that’s not necessarily bad.
For example, one university had a rule that any prospective student who inquires about a certain program, and shows a detailed understanding of how that program works, be fast tracked in.
Why? We’ve spent a ton of time building that program and want to enroll interested students!
The same was true, to a lesser degree, of any prospect who had clearly done her research and was interested in this college specifically.
Asking things like “I hear you offer one on one tutorials - how do they work?” show that the students are actually interested in the college, and would probably be a good match.
On the other hand, if we get the idea that we’re simply a “safety school” that the student wants to avoid if they can - that student can expect an extremely rigorous and unforgiving assessment of her abilities.
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't see a difference between bribing someone under the table to get only your child in, vs a public donation that benefits the entire student body besides your child? The rules may be unfair but at least in the latter case, everyone knows that they are up against.
> vs a public donation that benefits the entire student body besides your child? Not a donation if the donor is receiving something in exchange.
I have lots of useless trinkets and tote bags that beg to differ
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh. On the one hand, I agree. On the other hand, the wealthy have proved that unless prison is a possible punishment, they're willing and eager to repeatedly pay away their crimes.
Totally, unless they're doing time it's just a business expense.
Which is why I like the concept of percentage fines rather than constants
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#108It's interesting - you read about David E. Shaw, that donated millions to ALL his target universities - just to cover all options. His kids got in (Yale IIRC) - completely legal.
Then you have these parents, that paid money to some corrupt worker, and it's jail time.
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#109I have a very hard time getting even remotely upset about the college bribery scandal when it's both legal and encouraged for the truly rich to get their failsons 'legacy admissions' at selective colleges by donating multiple millions to the institutions. The people who have been prosecuted as part of this scandal aren't being prosecuted for devaluing earned degrees at selective colleges; they're being prosecuted for…
I’ve often thought that if I ran my own company I would have a ban on hiring new grads from certain schools, particularly those like Harvard. Between their racism of denying qualified Asian applicants to accepting giant bribes to let in the children of rich or famous people, there’s no way for a company to to tell whether the credentials mean anything at all.
It’s not racism to choose applicants for racial diversity or diversity period. Affirmative action necessarily discriminates against/disadvantages someone in an effort to give another an advantage. We as a society, mostly accept this compromise.
Re: Lori Loughlin and husband sentenced in college bribery scandal
#110I have hard time understanding what goes for the bribery in US. Apparently, a lot of stuff that would be considered corruption in Europe is just business as normal in the US. In this particular case I would guess that what they did would be considered OK. Apparently it wasn't. Can someone from the US comment on where the boundary between what's OK and what's not lies?
Their bribe wasn't big enough, so it was the BAD sort of bribe, seems to be about the size of it. Bizarre. I have a lot of concerns about the Irish college admissions system (a numeric score is derived from final school year exam results; places are filled based on the highest scores who applied by a national computer system, then anyone left is shunted to their second choice (which may be in a different institution)…
In India, a similar thing happens for engineering admissions.
People write a national level exam, get individual ranks. No two people get the same rank.
A convention is organized by the education body, where students are called in slots, with the top rankers going first. So they have all the colleges to choose from, all the subjects, etc.
Some % of seats in all colleges are reserved for various categories of students like athletes, physically handicapped, etc. But they are also prioritized based on their rank and an additional score (like a national level badminton winner is prioritized over a state level one, even if the national level player has a worse rank than the state level one).
Apart from this, all colleges are allowed 'management' seats, which are essentially seats that can be purchased. However, even to purchase seats, the student has to get a qualifying rank in the exam.
Costs for the seats are also fixed nationwide, with govt. doling out grants to the colleges for specific indexes, like male / female ratio, etc.