The college admissions scandal shed light on how prominent the role of money and privilege can play in an already corrupt college admissions process. Plenty of students applying to top prestigious universities get rejected despite having a perfect GPA and perfect test scores. With only a limited amount of spots these top schools can give out, the college application process already feels rigged; now we just know it actually is.
Credit: Slate
The worst part about this whole scandal is that the students who bought and bribed their way into these elite universities took the spots away from (actually qualified) students who would have otherwise gained admission into these top schools. On top of that, some of the students who bribed their way into these schools don’t even value their education in the slightest.
Olivia Jade, one of the students involved in the scandal, said in a now-deleted video that she didn’t care about school. “I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend, but I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone and hope that I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of game days, partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
Credit: Bristol Herald Courier
Even worse than stealing spots from general applicants was how they took the limited amount of spots reserved for student-athletes. You don’t have to be an athlete to recognize how hard these students work to be able to balance both school and their sport.
A lot of student-athletes depend on being recruited through their sports team and given an athletic scholarship. It’s hard enough for student-athletes to gain a spot in an elite college’s sports team; it’s even harder when those spots have a price tag, which can easily be purchased by anyone with enough money to spare.
This scandal shed light on how celebrities can easily buy their way into top colleges and it makes you wonder how many other affluent people—without celebrity status—do the same, whether it be through fake GPAs/test scores, bribes, or generous donations. This whole scandal just confirms the extent of how corrupt the college admissions process is.
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