In a scam that would make former Nasdaq Chairman Bernie Madoff proud, 58-year-old William “Rick” Singer pulled off a doozy, helping high school students of rich parents cheat their way into admissions at top colleges and universities. Singer’s Newport, Calif.-based Edge College & Career network, offered for a hefty fee, between $100,000 and $2.5 million, beefing up college admission resumes, including bribing admission officers, sports coaches, not to mention providing technical help to cheat on SAT and ACT test scores. Hiring phony test takers and Photoshop specialists, Singer’s team took exams, corrected wrong answers and doctored photos, showing otherwise non-athletes as superbly talents amateur athletes. Singer reportedly took in over $25 million over the last five years, gaining admission to his clients to some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities.
While not know yet, as with most FBI sting operations, it’s likely one of Singer’s disgruntled clients who demanded a refund and was refused, ratted him out to the local law enforcement or the FBI. Singer’s scam, while egregious, isn’t only unique to Newport Beach, Calif. Countless numbers of college counseling companies exist around the country, helping prepare high school students with the arduous task of completing college applications. Throwing the book at Singer and his rich clients, like “Desperate House Wives” star Felicity Huffman or “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin, underscores the desperate acts of the rich-and-famous to help their children get into top schools. “These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” said Andrew Lelling, U.S. Atty. in Boston. “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected,” said Lelling.
Instead of focusing on “wealth-and-privilege,” Lelling would be better off talking about Singer’s scam, gaming the system, but, more importantly, perpetrating fraud. Whether a high school parent is rich or not is beside the point. Plenty of wealthy college applicants gain privilege over the less affluent students by attending elite prep schools or paying for expensive exam prep companies or specialized coaching on college essays or fashioning the kind of extra-curricular activities needed to enhance admissions to the nation’s top colleges and universities. If you carry the U.S. Attorney’s argument forward, then anyone with money in a capitalist society has an undue advantage in college admissions. Whether that’s true or not, money plays a part in everything in a capitalist society. Singer’s scam went over the top but plenty of college companies offer well-healed students an advantage.
Singer crossed the line with his college counseling business, dummying up resumes and test scores, collecting hefty fees for his contacts with admission offices at elite colleges and universities. When wealthy children attend elite prep schools, parents know that college counselors have personal relationships with college counselors, giving them a distinct advantage in college acceptance. It’s a well known fact that public school students with comparable grades, test scores and extracurricular activities, don’t have a prayer most of the time getting into elite colleges and universities. If they attend high-priced private schools, students have a distinct advantage over public high school students of getting into elite universities, especially Ivy League Universities. While Singer got caught in the cookie jar, his Newport, Calif.-based Edge College & Career Network is the tip of the iceberg.
There’s nothing new or surprising about the wealthy buying their way into admissions for otherwise mediocre students. While no one wants to look at the role of wealth-and-privilege in the U.S. college admission system, there’s widespread dealing from the bottom of the deck when it comes to legacy children and rich donors. Posting hefty bonds up to $ 1 million to bailout rich parents in Los Angeles U.S. District Court, Judge Alexander MacKinnon ordered Huffman to pay $250,000, while Loughlin and her fashion-designer husband Mossimo Giannulli were forced to pay $1 million. Code-named “Operation Varsity Blues” after a 1999 movie staring James Van Der Beek, 300 FBI agents fanned out around the country to snare 33 parents, 13 coaches and associates in Singer’s business. “What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school,” said Singer.
While Singer cheated, crossed the line and broke the law, wealthy families do anything possible to get their kids into elite colleges and universities. Representatives and Yale University and University of Southern California [USC], said they would scour their admission records and take action if students gamed the system, revoking admissions or, if need be, disciplining existing students. Charging well-heeled parents with fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Atty. means business. Before throwing the book at parents that paid Singer, the U.S. Atty. should consider the whole corrupt system that favors wealth-and-privilege over ordinary people. Colleges and Universities have to take a hard look at usual-and-customary admission process that favor elite prep schools and gives a distinct advantages to private-pay college counselors.
