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It’s being called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted. Wealthy parents, Hollywood actresses, coaches and college prep executives have been accused of carrying out a nationwide fraud to get students into prestigious universities, according to a federal indictment.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment that parents paid a college prep organization to take admission tests on behalf of students or to correct their answers. Further, it is alleged that the organization allegedly bribed college coaches to help admit the students into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their abilities.

U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling said Tuesday Wednesday that the parents were a “catalog of wealth and privilege,” including actors, CEOs, a fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm.

“This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud,” Lelling said. “There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy, and I’ll add that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”

 

WIBC hosts The Chicks on the Right, however, note that the existing culture surrounding college admissions reinforces the notion that attending a prestigious university is not about obtaining a top notch education.

Daisy:

“It’s not about academics anymore, and this whole scandal is proof of that. It’s about parents wanting to get their kids into a school with a really good name so they can say they attended a university with a really good name. That’s it.”

Mock:

“And I hope these people go to jail; the consequences need to be severe. As a parent, you work really hard to just pay for your kid to go to a state school. These kids don’t even want to go school, and they’re not even smart enough to get into these universities on their own merit. It’s absolutely vile.”

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