This week, 33 parents were charged with bribing to get their children admitted into top American universities. Amid the charged parents were rich businessmen, lawyers, doctors and celebrities such as Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. Lori Loughlin, known for starring in Full House, along with her husband, the fashion designer, Mossimo Giannulli are charged with spending half a million dollars in bribes to get both their daughters into USC, falsifying test scores and making it appear as if the girls were part of the rowing team.
While this is recent news, these types of dealings have most likely been going on for a very long time. While it’s nice to believe everyone has a fair chance of getting into university, the reality is that being wealthy puts a student one step in front of everyone else.
The part of this scandal that is the most infuriating is that as a university student myself, I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am and know almost everyone else has as well. It is disheartening to see someone be given the same opportunity as you who didn’t work half as hard for it. I am sure it’s even more disheartening for students who perhaps applied to these universities and didn’t get in. For every spot that was taken by one of these children whose admission was payed for in bribes, a spot was removed from someone who was perhaps more deserving.
On the other hand, some sympathy may be given to the children of the charged parents if they were completely unaware of what was happening. If they were under the impression they got in on their own, motivated to attend to university and get an education, should they be denied that opportunity due to their parents’ mistakes?
It’s difficult to say right now as not that much information has been released about what will happen to the parents and their children. Hopefully now that this issue has been brought to light, the incidence of bribery will go down and students will be given more equal opportunities.
Information Obtained From:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/us/college-admission-cheating-universitie…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTDjPlP4BnY
Images Obtained From:
https://www.businessinsider.com/olivia-jade-lori-loughlin-daughter-colle…