Celebrity, Wealthy Parents Found Guilty in College Admissions Scandal

Every high school student knows it is a battle to get into college. Between SAT scores, grades, and extracurriculars, students will do whatever it takes to have an impressive college application.

High school students across the country work very hard to get accepted into their dream school. Unfortunately, money talks, and some do not have to work at all. Fifty people have been found guilty of bribery by using their fortune to buy their children’s “successes.”  

Lori Loughlin, Full House star, and her husband J. Mossimo Giannulli paid $500,000 for each of their two daughters to become recruits for USC’s crew team. The both of them have never participated in the sport. Lori’s daughter, Olivia Jade, posted a video back in August of 2018 saying how she only likes college for the parties and the game days. Her parents pushed her to go to college even though Olivia was thriving in her makeup business.

Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives star, and her husband William H. Macy paid a conspirator to doctor her daughter’s SAT score. This was plotted to guarantee college admissions into Ivy League schools. The SAT score was doctored at the test-taking center shortly after their daughter finished taking the exam. Huffman paid this “test doctor” $15,000.

On 21 March 2019, UCLA men’s soccer coach resigned after taking part in a college scandal. Salcedo accepted a $100,000 bribe from a sports marketing company to forge soccer documents for Lauren Isackson. The documents were to guarantee a spot on UCLA’s women’s soccer team. Lauren’s father is a realtor who gifted 2,150 Facebook shares for the falsified documents. Lauren has never played soccer a day in her life.

The one man who plotted these college schemes is known as William “Rick” Singer. His website called thekeyworldwide.com is currently shut down due to the scandal, as it is where most of his clients went to seek help. Rick claims he is a coach who helps families get their children into college, but in reality, he only gets teenagers into college if money is involved.

This scandal hurt millions of students who did not get accepted into elite schools, such as USC or UCLA. The colleges are currently sued for corruption, and the students who were handed their admissions may have their degrees terminated.