“At what dollar value would you be willing to compromise your ethics?”
This weekend, Netflix released the documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admission Scandal:
In case you missed it, this was the scandal that involved wealthy parents – some of whom were famous – paying Rick Singer to get his children to enter elite colleges:
Now, I knew a decent amount going into this documentary – specifically everything about Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin – but I didn’t know what it was all about. Just, you know, memes.
So, here are all the facts I learned that made me think “eat the rich”:
1
Rick Singer received “donations” from parents to put their children in certain schools. Donations ranged from $ 300,000 to $ 500,000, and schools included Georgetown, Boston College, Georgia Tech, USC, UCLA and Berkeley:
University of Southern California
It was designed in this way so that parents could get a tax break and children are supposed to never find out that their parents made a donation to put them in college.
two
The government wiretapped Rick Singer’s phone – without his knowledge – and this is how they intercepted all these conversations about their dark “side door” business to get these kids to college:
Scott Eisen / Getty Images
3
Fifty people were indicted for this crime:
4
Before becoming synonymous with this scandal in the late 1990s, Rick Singer was an independent university advisor and helped many students in the Bay Area:
Netflix
He was the “go to” advisor at that time.
5
Author Daniel Golden says people I think Acceptances are “based on merit, except for affirmative action for minorities” when, in reality, many students enter college based on their high-class extracurricular activities:
Netflix
Like sailing, fencing and horseback riding, not to mention cash donations. Golden cites Jared Kushner as an example – his father donated $ 2.5 million to Harvard and then Jared was accepted, although he was a “high school student” who was not “taking the most difficult high school courses”.
6
Rick Singer became the favorite guy for wealthy parents looking to put their kids in college because he was asking for hundreds of thousands of donations instead of tens of millions:
Fizkes / Getty images
“What he sold … was essentially a certainty of admission at a bargain price.”
7
Before Rick Singer started coaching at college, he was a high school basketball coach. However, this did not last long, because he was “volatile” and tended to yell at students:
Netflix
He later became a coach at Cal State Sacramento. His experience as a college coach helped him trick his clients’ children into college through fabricated athletic hobbies, as he had first-hand experience with college sports.
8
Rick Singer targeted the niche sports – like sailing or water polo – because no one was going to look there, compared to basketball or football, which were more visible sports:
9
Donna Heinel was the senior associate athletic director at USC – she soon became the “guardian between the admissions department and the athletics department”:
Boston Globe / Getty Images
Heinel was pocketing Rick Singer’s $ 20,000 a month when they were working together because she was promoting these students as “athletic recruits”.
10
Rick took advantage of the fact that the admissions department and the athletics department did not communicate – the admissions department accepted coaches’ word about their lineups and recruits:
Netflix
That’s why Singer chose coaches and sporting directors in his scheme.
11
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli sent photos of Bella and Olivia on rowing machines to Singer, who he used to place them at USC as helmsmen for the crew team:
12
To complicate matters, their daughter, Olivia Jade, on her YouTube channel, did nothing but talk about how, although she was blessed to be getting an education, she hated school:
Netflix / YouTube
Olivia said in a video that she wanted to quit the last year, but her parents did not allow it.
13
Things started to get complicated when Olivia’s counselor called the USC admissions office and said he didn’t know she was involved with the crew:
14
Mossimo Giannulli went to the orientation office and had a very intense conversation about what he was saying to the USC admissions office that made the counselor “nervous”:
Scott Wintrow / Getty Images
15
Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer found himself involved in this extortion conspiracy because it was his job to raise funds for a sport that cost the school more money than it earned, and Singer continued to donate funds as long as he “accepted a look” at certain students:
16
Interestingly, Felicity Huffman’s daughter would have entered the school for which she applied, but Singer told Felicity that her daughter had no grades to enter:
17
Rick Singer also explored the standardized test system to get “extra time” from his clients so that students had better advantages or even, in some cases, had the exam done by them:
Netflix
Mark Riddell was the “test inspector” who corrected responses and helped more than a dozen students stick to standardized tests.
18
Although Mark Riddell was almost praised in the media as a testing prodigy, Akil Bello, an expert in test preparation, made this precise analysis of Riddell’s skills:
One of the things that amuses me and irritates me when I see most of the reports out there [Mark Riddell] being a savant who takes the test, or whatever they choose to call him right now … um, he is an adult who is taking a test designed for 11th graders. Anyone who values himself in the test preparation industry should be able to do what he did. The question is whether they would be willing to do that.
19
The reason why Rick Singer was caught is because a former client of his, Rudy Meredith, exchanged information about Singer’s coup to lessen the punishment he would receive for his unrelated title charges:
Medianews Group / Getty Images
20
As soon as he was approached by the feds, Rick Singer became a cooperative informant:
Netflix
He called all of his clients on the pretext that his foundation was being “audited” to incriminate himself.
21
Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conspiracy. Even without facing prison, he lost his job, home, insurance and reputation:
Netflix
“Mr. Vandemoer is probably the least guilty of all the defendants … the other coaches have benefited. He didn’t do that.”
22
All participating parties who pleaded guilty were sentenced to between two weeks and seven months:
Boston Globe / Getty Images
23
However, at the end of the day, many people noticed that they did not come out of this situation very well. At the very least, colleges have benefited from this scandal, because if the rich tried so hard to put their children in this school, then it must be worth it:
24
Rick Singer is currently awaiting sentencing:
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