Recent federal indictments of dozens of parents, coaches and an admissions consultant put in the spotlight the lengths some will go to to place students in prestigious schools.
, vice president for education policy and knowledge management at New America, about the many ways wealthy parents use their money to get around the admissions process 鈥� and the impact that has on students.
禄 Interview Highlights
How some bypass the traditional college admission process: 鈥淐oaches often of minor sports, not big-time revenue sports like basketball or football, are often allotted a certain number of slots each year to recruit students who may be very good at, say, tennis, but wouldn鈥檛 otherwise qualify to get into the institution 鈥� those are the coaches who received the bribes.鈥�
How the cheating scheme went on for so long: 鈥淭hey clearly weren鈥檛 checking to see if these young men and women actually enrolled in the sport, which would seem like a fairly easy thing to do. If you get a list in one year that says I wanna give a tennis scholarship to these three women ... not that difficult to the next year see if they鈥檙e actually on the tennis team or not.鈥�
On who the victims are: "The universities have said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e the victims here,' but really the victims were the people who didn鈥檛 get the chance to go to the place they deserved. There鈥檚 a callousness and a level of indifference to that that really is pretty appalling 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 speak well to the character of anyone involved.鈥�
Advice to those who don't get into a brand-name college: 鈥淭he entire system doesn鈥檛 work this way 鈥� but also don鈥檛 get too caught up in the hype around these super selective institutions. The idea that if you don鈥檛 get into a super selective expensive school, pathways of opportunity are cut off for you, is not true.鈥�
