Varsity Blues Scandal

We often hear of rich families donating to schools and their children benefiting from those donations. The Varsity Blues Scandal showed us that the rich do far more than make donations to get their kids in top schools and it undermines everything the American Dream is supposed to represent. It was labeled by the FBI as one of the biggest college admission fraud in history. So now enters the underlining question of, is the educational system rigged for the rich?

Victim-American Public, College Students, American Government, Universities.

Villain- Rick Singer & parents involved.

Vindicator- FBI

Void- Bribing SAT Practitioners, Coaches, Falsify scholarship documents, faking disabilities.

Vehicle- Press Conference and Judicial System.

Value- Learning that collegiate admissions process has not been fair for all and has turned into a pay for play operation.

Top CEOs, lawyers, and two known actresses all are implicated in this scandal. Going far past just donations, this case shows exactly how corrupt the college admission process has become. The man in the center of the allege scandal is Rick Singer, a college admission consultant. He allegedly accepted more than 25 million dollars in bribes for which he altered "incoming students" SAT scores, paid coaches to accept students as scholarship athletes to sports like Crew and Tennis although the student had never played the sport, and even altering pictures of athletes from the internet and lying about learning and physical disabilities.

There are many people who are directly hurt by this. First, is the belief in the American collegiate system by students, parents, and employers. With the cost of college sky rocketing and colleges accepting fewer and fewer qualified applicants while increasing their school's overall population each semester, it is imperative for people to believe the system is fair. Americans work their whole life saving so they can send their kids to college in hopes of their child completing the perfect "American Dream". Some students report working multiple jobs to get through school.

The college is a major loser in this situation as well. Depending on how far they can prove the corruption goes the school could lose credibility, with the prestige of the school is being put into question. Schools the like of USC, Stanford, and Yale were named in the investigation. It is considered to be a vigorous process and accomplishment to be accepted to one of these schools. Graduating from a college of this magnitude is perfect resumé bait for students. If you believe that academics and personal work is not being factored into acceptance the entire prestige the school once had begins to fade. Furthermore, it is only natural to believe that if the acceptance process and being fake, the students' performance at the school has to be as well. Combining these two will cause students to look for different places to attend. Thus the school will lose students and alumni investments, as well as, not having a valid evaluation for this tuition cost anymore since their prestige is gone.

Obviously, the parents involved will lose reputation the alleged actress' more than the CEO and lawyers, as their public image is directly linked to the roles they get. Hard working Americans will not want to watch you on TV knowing you might be the reason their valedictorian never got into USC.

The students take the biggest hit of all. Depending on how this works out most of them can be kicked out of college completely and those who have graduated could have their degree revoked. Not having a degree can hurt you in many positions. Their integrity will also be questioned if you are an employer would you trust one of the kids? How can we really know they had no involvement in the whole process?

So what can everybody do?

Rick Singer & Parents :

1. Most have already pleaded guilty.

2. The second thing everyone must do is apologize to the public.

3. Shift guilt to colleges, while they have done wrong these parents are not murderers. In fact, their story might actually lend itself as informative to other parents. Any parent would do as much as they could to help their child get ahead. Another thing this brings into question is why has college admission become so hard that people feel they must do this just to give their child an advantage? Shouldn't we take a look at colleges and what they are doing to make this process better for the students and parents? Maybe the application process and the way we look at college vs. trade school needs to be looked at. They were preyed on by Rick Singer who admitted he created a loophole, because he knew he could take advantage of the wealthy. Finally, they are not the only people to have done this. Two years ago 6 teachers were indicted for faking test scores in Atlanta; the pressure around testing has become extreme on all sides. The teachers were doing it to improve funding so they could give students a better chance at learning and succeeding in life.

Students:

1. Apologize for parents actions

2. Shift guilt to parents, you knew nothing this isn't your fault.

3. Condemn college admission process that influenced your parents decision

4. "I'm young I have my whole life ahead of me!" America always feels sorry for our youth. Using this to our advantage will make people think about how they would want a second chance at that age.

Universities:

1. Apologize for misconduct by certain employees and for undermining what college is supposed to mean.

2. Suspend or Expel students who have gotten in on false pretenses.

3. Required all fraudulent scholarships be paid back in full

4. Open a full investigation into their admission process open to the public so they can prove their is no corruption or they have done everything to prevents it

5. Create focus group and study around admission process, this allows the public to see you do care about parents and students and there is an understanding that the admissions process has gotten out of hand.

6. Dismiss all faculty involved.

This is just a brief overview of this crisis and what the options are for each entity involved. A scandal of this size will leave some damage, but there is nothing that everyone involve cannot overcome. Handling a crisis the proper way and having the correct tools is essential, and Archangel Firm is here to guide you every step of the way!