By: Laura Green
Staff Reporter
On March 12, 50 people were charged with a felony for taking part in one of the largest college bribery scandals. Orchestrating the whole scandal was a man named William Singer. He would take money from parents and then pay bribes to coaches for the child to be put on a team. In other situations, he paid SAT administrators to correct students’ scores to make them higher, according to APNews.
These families avoided the competitive college admissions and application process through misuse of money and corrupt schemes.
Junior Mateo Parzych said, “Personally, I believe that you should work hard to get into a school and you should get out what you put into the process. I think it is totally unfair.”
Two famous actresses that were involved were actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. It is alleged that Loughlin paid $500,000 for the University of Southern California crew coach to put her daughter on the roster in order to be accepted.
Junior Rachel Aldieri said, “It’s crazy to think that someone like Lori Laughlin would do something so extremely wrong to get her kids into college. She took opportunities away from kids who worked so hard to get where they are, and that’s just not okay at all.”
Senior Mike Nicholas said, “Honestly, I just think it is messed up that these colleges also let this happen.”
Some people are asking: “Should these students get kicked out of school?”
“I think the whole problem is because of the parents. I feel like no kid would ask their parents to pay that much money for them to get into a school. It had to be the parent’s idea, but I still think the kids should get kicked out of school,” said senior Brandon Asgeirsson.
After the news of the college bribery scandals became public, many students are wondering if there are even more unheard cases like this happening.
Junior Emily Miller said, “Parents paying for school definitely happens more than we think. People take college as a competition so they want to get into the best one and will do anything to do so.”
“I feel like the whole college process is sometimes sketchy when it comes to money and getting in. There are buildings named after people, so of course other family members are going to go there. The school will not want to lose their support or money,” said junior Dylan Molster.
Sophomore Mary Conlon said, “This story really hit home for me because I got into my dream school, but unfortunately could not go because of the money. I think it is really unfair not only because they did not work hard to get in, but because they just paid their way in.”
The Yale Women’s Soccer coach was one of the people caught in the bribery scandal. He was charged with recruiting players onto the team so that they would have an easier time getting into the school.
Some student athletes have also been angered by the scandal because they worked hard for their spots on their university sports team.
Junior Courtney Charbonneau, a member of Sacred Heart’s soccer team, is upset about the scandals.
“I think it is super messed up because for me getting recruited was basically a three-year process of emailing coaches to get them to see you play, sending them highlight tapes, and making trips across the country every weekend of the season and during school breaks to go to showcases to get exposure,” said Charbonneau.
Junior Josh Inkel, who is also a member of the soccer team, said, “An athlete who was placed on the team because of his or her family’s bribe may not even have the talent to be playing on that team. Or just the same, that person may not have the grades to attend the university.”
“It is just awful how corrupt our society can be sometimes,” said Inkle.
