Jump to content

Mass College Admission Cheating Scandal


Js1

Recommended Posts

17 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

The guy that was the hub for all this is on a wire tap saying he helped 800 kids this way.  Don't know if that's a lie but we are only looking at 30 or so currently targeted.  So we might be just at the very very beginning.

So.....just the tip?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the iceberg?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

There was a chick (loosely defined), in our era that rode her bike to ETC from God knows where, wearing spandex and a helmet and shoes, the whole schmear and did not have a spandex worthy bod.  She would come in with her spandexed fat rolls heaving and sweaty. Apparently, she would go in that ladies room next to the Taylor Lounge and give herself sponge baths using paper towels at the sink.  The cool/semi-hot gals had nothing good to say about her or her hygiene habits.

The freshman calculus classes held in ETC made the scenery around ME quite acceptable at times.

Wait, your’re a lawyer. What were you doing at ETC?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Texas_Rocks said:

Since none of these wealthy parents will actually be incarcerated it would be awesome if they get caught paying stand-ins to do the community service that they MIGHT get slapped with.

If Lori winds up with a felony, she’ll need to bribe somebody in Canada’s border patrol to let her in.  They don’t let people in with recent records.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

How is this a $1M bond case for Aunt Becky?  That seems kinda steep.

 

 

 

 

Because Mossimo is Italian, and they are wealthy, flight risk.

But, federal bail tends to make the least sense of a nonsensical practice.

Edited by TwiceHorn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

If they're that wealthy, $1M isn't gonna stop them.  They won't flee unless they have their daughters in tow, regardless.

They probably wrote that into their initial calculations for the bribe.

How much are we willing to pay to get into USC?

I'd say $1,015,000.

Well that means only $15k for the first installment so we can have a mill to jump the eventual bail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Post stealing the Onion's material.  SIAP.

Son defends parents caught in college admissions scandal while smoking blunt

malcolm-abbott-caught-smoking-blunt-defe

Maybe this is why Gregory and Marcia Abbott allegedly bought their daughter’s way into college.

Their “rapper” son, Malcolm, popped out of the family’s Fifth Avenue building to smoke a giant blunt — while defending his parents and bragging about his latest CD.

“They’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion,” said Malcolm Abbott outside the home that overlooks the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “I believe everyone has a right to go to college, man.”

Spoiler

In between drags, Malcolm, whose father is the founder of food and beverage distributor International Dispensing Corp., admitted, “I didn’t go to college.”

The toker, who sports a ponytail and raps under the name “Billa,” then shamelessly plugged his music. “Check out my CD, ‘Cheese and Crackers,’ ” he said of his 2018 five-track rec­ord that includes a song titled “If I Lost My Money.”

Later, Malcolm emerged with his brother, who groused to The Post on Tuesday his parents “got roped into [this by] some guy who f–king cheated them.”

The parents are accused of paying admitted mastermind William “Rick” Singer $125,000 to boost their struggling daughter’s ACT and SAT scores.

Singer paid off an alleged crooked test proctor to inflate the girl’s scores to a perfect 800 on the SAT math exam and 710 on the literature test. On the ACTs, her score of 23 out of 36 was upped to a near-perfect 35, according to court filings.

Both parents were out on $500,000 bail each.

https://nypost.com/2019/03/13/son-defends-parents-caught-in-college-admissions-scandal-while-smoking-blunt/

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

Post stealing the Onion's material.  SIAP.

Son defends parents caught in college admissions scandal while smoking blunt

malcolm-abbott-caught-smoking-blunt-defe

Maybe this is why Gregory and Marcia Abbott allegedly bought their daughter’s way into college.

Their “rapper” son, Malcolm, popped out of the family’s Fifth Avenue building to smoke a giant blunt — while defending his parents and bragging about his latest CD.

“They’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion,” said Malcolm Abbott outside the home that overlooks the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “I believe everyone has a right to go to college, man.”

  Reveal hidden contents

In between drags, Malcolm, whose father is the founder of food and beverage distributor International Dispensing Corp., admitted, “I didn’t go to college.”

The toker, who sports a ponytail and raps under the name “Billa,” then shamelessly plugged his music. “Check out my CD, ‘Cheese and Crackers,’ ” he said of his 2018 five-track rec­ord that includes a song titled “If I Lost My Money.”

Later, Malcolm emerged with his brother, who groused to The Post on Tuesday his parents “got roped into [this by] some guy who f–king cheated them.”

The parents are accused of paying admitted mastermind William “Rick” Singer $125,000 to boost their struggling daughter’s ACT and SAT scores.

Singer paid off an alleged crooked test proctor to inflate the girl’s scores to a perfect 800 on the SAT math exam and 710 on the literature test. On the ACTs, her score of 23 out of 36 was upped to a near-perfect 35, according to court filings.

Both parents were out on $500,000 bail each.

https://nypost.com/2019/03/13/son-defends-parents-caught-in-college-admissions-scandal-while-smoking-blunt/

That's the worst blunt I've ever seen. If I saw that as an admissions officer I would just assume that kid is a fucking moron. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

Where I've seen it, in business, is the good old boy side that gets a good number of folks into middle management.

One of two things happens.

A) They are really good and move up

B) They aren't and get shuffled around from company to company or to different positions in the company remaining in middle management

Venture Capital, based on my somewhat limited experience, full of trust fund babies.

Institutional VC may have trust fund kids involved but all the people I deal with are really really smart and motivated.  Guy that drops $150k into a seed round and claims to be a VC is not....he's a jerkoff.

 

Anyhow, all these people involved should go to jail.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, pacman said:

 

Fuck your legends of ut engineering, try the ut math department where your classes might as well be taught in a foreign language. You basically learn everything all by yourself 

 

 

This is being passed around on Facebook 

  Hide contents

I’m gathering from my feed that this whole college admissions scandal is really shocking to a lot of people. Well, sit down, babies, because I’m about to deal you a hard blow. This is nothing. I think a lot of people seriously have no idea how thoroughly the system is rigged. I spent several years as a for-hire writer who couldn’t afford to turn work away. This means I accepted a lot of jobs I feel icky about now, but it also means that I’ve seen firsthand how this all shakes out. (Important note: There is not a single person on my friends list who I am referring to with any of what I’m about to write. Also, I stopped taking the type of work I'm going to describe years ago. So if I’ve ever helped you with written material, or if I'm currently helping you: this does not apply to you.) See, getting little Asshole McGloatyFace III into Harvard is just the first domino en route to prestige and pedigree. That’s why it’s so important; the first domino starts the chain. The richest of rich parents get him there by donating a library collection or buying a building. The middling rich, like those in today’s story, cheat (and don’t for a single second think the people indicted today are the only ones, because they are not, not, not). The lowly rich hire people like me to write their kids’ essays and letters, pull together their resumes, and figure out how to make years of abject mediocrity sound good. And they don’t only hire people like me. They also hire special tutors and test prep gurus to teach their kids to hack the tests. They pull strings to get their kids special accommodations they don’t need, so they have more time to get all the math problems done on the SAT. They get interview coaches who teach their kids what to say when they go for their appointment. They lean on connections to get Harvard and Yale take a "second look" at their C+ student with a 980 SAT score. These kids get a complete team, and the face Asshole McGloatyFace presents to the Ivy isn’t his own; it’s a composite of all the best expertise his parents’ money could buy. When Asshole McGloatyFace is in school, his parents hire people like me again. Want to know how many papers I’ve written for undergraduate students? Graduate students? I couldn’t even tell you. It’s a higher number than I can remember offhand. Need a magic paper to save your grade in the class you’re failing? Need to save your half-assed thesis? I’ve done it all. I’m a better-than-average writer and I made my clients look good. All this work goes into making sure Asshole McGloatyFace graduates from an Ivy, because graduating from an Ivy—combined with the connections of Mom and/or Dad—means he gets internships at the best companies and firms. It means he gets interviews, even if his GPA is sub-3.0. It means he gets the best jobs when he graduates. He’s still an idiot, but now he’s an idiot earning high-five or low-six figures. This is when the next dominos start to fall. Asshole McGloatyFace’s company is going to get him an executive coach. Because he has the right name and the right degree and the right presentation, so he’s tagged as executive material, and they’re going to start grooming him now so he doesn’t make them look stupid later. The coach is going to teach him how to present himself, what photos to put in his office, what suits to wear and how to accessorize. If Asshole is a man, the coach is going to teach him how to open large meetings with a sweet, humanizing story about his family, especially his kids. If Asshole is a woman, the coach is going to teach her how to be brusque with a smile and never talk about her family under any circumstances, especially not her kids. Along with the executive coach, Asshole is also going to be assigned a mentor, someone accomplished and probably equally prestigious. The role of the mentor is to help Asshole McGloatyFace to meet the right people, form the right connections. The mentor is going to take Asshole McGloatyFace to events and make sure he knows all the power players in their city. The coach, mentor, and senior-ups are going to guide Asshole McGloatyFace to volunteer and charitable giving opportunities. Not just any volunteering and charitable giving, but those that are well-aligned to Asshole’s decided-upon Personal Brand (TM). Asshole is going to learn how to give lots of money and make it known, without appearing to brag about it. Asshole is also going to get seated on the best non-profit boards in his city. Some of these are competitive. Want to know how I know that? Because they require an essay, resume, and bio. And guess who writes those. So now Asshole is rubbing elbows with even more movers and shakers, and is establishing a high-quality Personal Brand (TM). At this point, Asshole has been promoted a couple times and is earning low-mid six figures. Buckle in, because here’s where lots of dominos start to fall. At this point, Asshole’s bio features an impressive school, an impressive job at an impressive company, impressive volunteer positions, impressive philanthropy, impressive Personal Brand (TM). This is enough to earn Asshole consideration for a whole host of things most average people have absolutely no awareness of. He’s going to apply for and be named one of his city’s “40 Under 40” and get a spread in a local, glossy magazine*. He’s going to apply for and get a position in his city’s “Up and Coming Young Leaders” program, and be interviewed on TV. He’s going to apply for and win a spot in his city’s “Wealthy People Pretending To Do Good But Really Just Hanging Out With Other Wealthy People” initiative, and get newspaper coverage. I’ll give you one guess who writes those applications. (*Note: I'm not shitting on "40 Under 40." Some folks make it on there for genuine charitable good deed, which is awesome.) By now Asshole’s been promoted again. He’s in his 40s, maybe 50s, and is earning high-six figures, and it’s time to go for the jackpot. Asshole has now built all the right credentials to apply for a position on a for-profit board. He probably won’t get the first one, and maybe not the second, but he’ll get the third or fourth. How quickly he gets picked up will have a lot to do with how well he’s nurtured his connections and how fondly people remember his parents, who are now elderly or dead. He’s going to link up with a Fortune 500, be named to their board, and pull in a seven-figure paycheck for turning up once per quarter to listen to updates from the CEO and make management decisions. He’ll need a resume, bio, and compelling personal letter to make this happen. Check, check, check. Asshole is now making millions of dollars per year, earning millions more on a board, and, as a loving parent, is guiding his own children through the exact same process. This is how it works. This is why The Right University is so important. It’s not about the degree. It’s about this entire life path, this entire system of manipulation and prestige, to make sure the children of the uber wealthy become the next generation of the uber wealthy, that they get exclusive opportunities and exclusive consideration. Every single step along this journey, there are other people clawing for the same opportunities but not getting them. Those people didn’t come from the right parents, or graduate from the right schools. Their applications weren’t as good, because they wrote them themselves, and most people (sorry, y’all, but it’s true) do not write nearly as well as they think they do. Their bios weren’t as perfect, because they didn’t have executive coaches and mentors to help them establish a fine-tuned personal brand. Their ideas weren’t as interesting, because they were working with their own stupid ideas and not the ideas of professional idea-havers. THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS RIGGED, YOU GUYS. It is rigged. Maybe you went from lower class to middle class, or lower middle class to upper middle class, and you feel like FUCKIN A I LOVE AMERICA AND BALD EAGLES AND MERITOCRACY, but it’s all an illusion. Even if you financially make your way into the nouveau riche layer of the upper class, you still won’t be one of the chosen unless you manage to hit some kind of insanely unlikely lottery (Barack and Michelle Obama come to mind), but you’re honestly more likely to get bit by a radioactive spider and start shooting web-shit from your wrists. The upper class is a closed system, thanks but no thanks, no vacancies, don’t let the door hit ya. I’ve taken jobs from 40-something year old men who handed the telephone to their daddies to talk about how to craft the right impression in their adult child’s “personal” letter. I’ve worked with executive coaches to hash out what jokes to write in order to best illustrate the “good humor” part of someone’s Personal Brand (TM) in a “personal” essay. THAT is how this works. There’s no such thing as meritocracy. The end.

If this guy's such a great writer, why hasn't he learned about paragraphs, yet?

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of The Onion being on point...

Tennis Instructor Mentoring Young Player Sees Potential In Parents’ Income

aetyxsba3ftysiqmz2oy.jpg

 

LOCK HAVEN, PA—Calling him the most promising recruit he’s seen in a decade of coaching, tennis instructor Thomas Petrov confirmed Thursday that he sees real potential in his student Aiden McDavid’s family income. “From his expensive Babolat racket to the brand-new Nikes, I can tell this kid’s parents have everything I’m looking for,” said Petrov, noting that he saw promise in Aiden the moment his parents dropped him off at practice in a brand-new Mercedes Benz sedan. “I’ve mentored a lot of kids throughout the years, and I can tell that Aiden’s special—his parents aren’t just some lawyers or mid-level executives, they’re running a hedge fund. Some kids show hints of potential, but these people are rocking Cartier watches and vacationing in Italy. They’re the real deal.” At press time, Petrov convinced Aiden’s parents that he could be something really special after watching the teen pack up his supplies in an $1,200 Burberry duffel bag.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Moby Ric said:

I don't do interviews, I own the company.  And if I interview someone to work for me I could care less what their GPA in college was.  If you graduated then you did good enough.

Yeah, generally when I see that on a job application, I know it's not going to be a great fit.

I mean, my GPA was fine. But graduate school was two decades ago. If my GPA is even a consideration at this point... what the hell are you even doing? The only reason my education should be under consideration at this point is if I lied about it. Which I don't. Because I don't fucking need to. If you care, you're interested in who I was 20 years ago, not what I do today. I mean... back then, Windows 95 experience was a resume bullet point, ya dig?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, gecko said:

Let's file a lawsuit...

http://news.trust.org/item/20190314135743-dob9p

A $500 billion civil lawsuit filed by a parent on Wednesday in San Francisco accused 45 defendants of defrauding and inflicting emotional distress on everyone whose "rights to a fair chance at entrance to college" were stolen through their alleged conspiracy.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another lawsuit:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190314/ut-named-in-class-action-suit-against-schools-in-college-cheating-scandal

Quote

UT named in class-action suit against schools in college cheating scandal

By Mary Huber 

Posted at 10:24 AM

Two women are suing eight elite universities, including the University of Texas, claiming that the schools have a “rigged” admissions process that allowed unqualified students to be accepted ahead of worthy candidates who paid admissions fees thinking they had a fair chance to be accepted.

The class-action lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in federal court in California is the latest in a scandal involving celebrities and other wealthy parents who federal authorities say sought to have their children admitted into universities by bribing athletic coaches and having other people take tests for their children.

UT Tennis Coach Michael Center was one of the coaches charged with fraud as part of the scheme, after authorities say he accepted a $100,000 bribe to get a student into the university as a tennis recruit when the student did not play competitive tennis.

The university announced Wednesday it had fired Center, and officials have said the bribery scheme was an isolated incident that involved a single coach and no other university employee or officer.

However, Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, both students at Stanford University, are now suing UT and others, saying they applied to some of the named schools and paid admissions fees, thinking they were getting a “fair admissions consideration process,” according to the suit. Instead, the process was “rigged by fraud” and schools allowed unqualified students to take slots that could have gone to others, the suit says.

“Each of the universities were negligent in failing to maintain adequate protocols and security measures in place to guarantee the sanctity of the college admissions process, and to ensure that their own employees were not engaged in these type of bribery schemes,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also names The Edge College & Career Network and The Key Worldwide Foundation, the for-profit college counseling company and the non-profit charity owned by William “Rick” Singer, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering, racketeering and other charges in connection with the scheme alleged by authorities.

Investigators’ charging documents allege that Singer made about $25 million from 2011 to 2018 to bribe college coaches and create fake athletic profiles, some with staged photographs. In exchange, coaches would designate the clients’ children as recruited athletes, thereby helping them gain easier admission. College athletic entrance requirements are typically lower than those for regular students.

The lawsuit says that the UT System has specifically denounced the influence of money in its admissions process, saying that selective schools often face “the suspicion of a double standard that favors well-connected students.”

“Ensuring that fair and transparent admissions processes exist across the UT System is necessary to maintain public trust,” the university has stated. “Recruitment and admissions policies that are disclosed to the public and are consistent with stated university goals garners public trust that student admissions are centered on merit.”

The women also say in the lawsuit that their degrees from Stanford University are not worth as much now, because they come from a school involved in the scandal and that employers may now question whether they were admitted on their own merits. They are asking to be reimbursed for admissions fees and other damages.

The suit was filed in California, where many of the named universities are located. It also claims that California is the proper jurisdiction for a claim against UT because the university has solicited students residing in California, accepted money, including application fees, from California residents and has recruited athletes residing in California.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Austin Gleeson?  I had him for PHY303L and wanted to drop it because of the fear and loathing from 303K but hell week was the first week of class second semester.  I went to Dean Margaret Baker on Monday (seventh day of classes) and almost cried to try to get out of it.  No dice.  She stopped short of calling me a pussy, but not by much.

I'm glad I stayed with it, Gleeson was/is one of the great profs at UT.  He started the Physics Circus and that's him in 2017;

Circus3.jpg

Gleeson was the best prof I ever had at UT.  I was an EE major in the mid 80s...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$500B is because you have to start somewhere. I don’t know what the barrier to entry is for Fortune 500 Board’s/C-Suite, but I imagine if you look at the numbers they aren’t well represented by public land grant degrees.

If this was going on for 5-10 years, a couple hundred kids with stellar HS resumes and test scores can’t get into Prestige U and have to go to Public Ivy or worse...

Career earnings of C-Suite vs normal middle manager.
Career earnings of drone in sector 7G vs normal middle manager. That shit adds up quickly.

The reason people were outlaying hundreds of thousands of dollars is because it was worth it as an “investment” in their kids future.

Side note: I’ve heard a compelling argument that we’ve done this to ourselves. GenX is told “you have to go to college”. With all those candidates a degree from Lamar or Abilene Christian isn’t good enough for Fortune 500 anymore. They go on to work at smaller business. Missing generation and millennials go to college, and there is no room at the inn. Elite schools increase tuition, public ivies increase tuition...”degree prestige” becomes larger barrier to entry for best jobs. Price goes up more. People have NW Public St Tech, BS Poli-Sci degree with 4.0 GPA that the regional plumbing supply distributer won’t accept for entry inside sales gig and poor plebe owes $100k @ 8.5%.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, gecko said:

Let's file a lawsuit...

http://news.trust.org/item/20190314135743-dob9p

A $500 billion civil lawsuit filed by a parent on Wednesday in San Francisco accused 45 defendants of defrauding and inflicting emotional distress on everyone whose "rights to a fair chance at entrance to college" were stolen through their alleged conspiracy.

xCukw7m.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

3vP2z.png

 

What about negative caring smart guy?

 

2 hours ago, The University said:

physics circus had been around for a long time before him. rory coker comes to mind. crazy but awesome dude.

 

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Coker was another founder, to my understanding.  I first saw it in 1983 with Coker and Gleeson. 

 

I went to the Physics Circus in HS, probably around 83 or so. I later had Coker for physics. Coker was kind of a tyrannical lunatic. Kicked people out of lecture if they were reading a paper. When he said HW was due before class, he wouldn't accept it after the bell rang.

But physics was a cake walk in the park compared to organic chemistry, imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

was kind of a tyrannical lunatic. Kicked people out of lecture if they were reading a paper. When he said HW was due before class, he wouldn't accept it after the bell rang.

those guys were always annoying. there was an upper div economics professor like that in the early 2000s.  young, probably early 40s.  forget his name. he knew his stuff and the classes were pretty interesting, but he was oddly strict about homework before the bell or picking up handouts before the bell.  even 1 second late and you're not getting a handout, hope you have a friend in the class.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, gecko said:

Let's file a lawsuit...

http://news.trust.org/item/20190314135743-dob9p

A $500 billion civil lawsuit filed by a parent on Wednesday in San Francisco accused 45 defendants of defrauding and inflicting emotional distress on everyone whose "rights to a fair chance at entrance to college" were stolen through their alleged conspiracy.

tenor.gif?itemid=6037208

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Machinator said:

 

Wonder if they'll ever respond about the admissions lady that was grading essays wrong this past fall.  She reversed the scoring so that bad essays had high scores and good ones did note.  Kids below 20% got accepted while kids in the top 5% received rejections.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...