All parents want the best for their children and would do anything to ensure that their child has the best future possible. Sometimes, however, parents are a little too willing to bend or ignore school rules in order to do what they think is in the best interest for their child.

Fifty parents, including celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, have been accused of paying their way to get their children into elite universities. The accusations include cheating on standardized tests, paying the proctor to change the student’s answers on the scantron, and bribing coaches and administrators to accept students as college athletes even if the student had never played that sport. This whole scheme was organized by William Rick Singer, who is the CEO of a college admissions prep company. He was selling the option to cheat on the SAT or ACT or use his connections with D1 coaches to get these children into their chosen university. These bribe payments were labeled as charitable contributions to the Key Worldwide Foundation, a nonprofit which was set up solely for Singer to attain the money. The universities caught up in the scandal include UC Berkley, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Wake Forest, the University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown, and Yale University.

Across the country, parents and students are outraged that wealthy families took spots at universities for less privileged, hard-working students. It is disappointing to think that a student who put in long hours training and practicing a sport, in hopes of one day playing at a university, never got their dream because a wealthy parent made a large donation so that their undeserving child got an acceptance letter. Universities across the US are reevaluating their admissions process in order to prevent this fraud from occurring in the future. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-high-school-students-feel-about-college-admissions-scandal