The True Scandal of the College Admissions Scam
A multimillion-dollar fraud involving Hollywood celebrities and major investors reveals the moral bankruptcy of elite colleges
The political journalist Michael Kinsley has a saying about Washington, D.C.: “The scandal isn’t what’s illegal. The scandal is what’s legal.” That truism is worth keeping in mind as the country digests, with a mix of hilarity and outrage, the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
The world of elite college admissions had its own Kinsley gaffe this week, and it was a doozy. A brief recap: According to the FBI, wealthy parents including celebrities, like Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman, paid large sums of money to William Rick Singer, the founder of a for-profit college preparation business based in Newport Beach, California. Singer and his associates in turn did everything they could to ensure the children of their well-heeled clients were admitted into elite colleges like Yale and Stanford, including bribing SAT or ACT administrators to take the tests for the students or correct the answers after the students had taken the test themselves, and bribing college coaches to pretend the applicants were recruited athletes.
