[News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by ImLawBoy »

LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:47 pm
ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:29 pm
We don't get to make that decision on behalf of the disabled. If a disabled person wants to forgo accommodations or boycott standardized testing while applying to schools, that's their right and their decision. If they want to use accommodations to take the tests, that's also their right and their decision.
It's not really their choice if they are serious about getting in to a school. We are saying, "You have this perfectly equitable accommodation. Now take the required test(s)."

I mean I guess it's anyone's choice to boycott a test. It's not without consequences.
But no one is arguing that it is a "perfectly equitable accommodation". We're doing what we can to level the playing field, but it's far from perfect. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or at least decent).

If you completely eliminate standardized testing from the educational application process, then the issue obviously goes away. As long as it still plays a role in admissions, though, there has to be accommodations for students who legitimately need them. Any combination of eliminating accommodations while keeping standardized testing as part of the process is unworkable (and would violate the ADA).
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by LawBeefaroni »

ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:02 pm

But no one is arguing that it is a "perfectly equitable accommodation". We're doing what we can to level the playing field, but it's far from perfect. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or at least decent).

I don't think anyone is honestly arguing that they are perfect but they are being sold as pretty damned close.
ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:02 pm
If you completely eliminate standardized testing from the educational application process, then the issue obviously goes away. As long as it still plays a role in admissions, though, there has to be accommodations for students who legitimately need them. Any combination of eliminating accommodations while keeping standardized testing as part of the process is unworkable (and would violate the ADA).
Well, yeah, sure. I guess if you want to comply with laws and stuff. :wink:
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by ImLawBoy »

LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:12 pm
ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:02 pm

But no one is arguing that it is a "perfectly equitable accommodation". We're doing what we can to level the playing field, but it's far from perfect. We shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or at least decent).

I don't think anyone is honestly arguing that they are perfect but they are being sold as pretty damned close.
We're quite a ways away from standardized testing for college, but I do have some experience with a kid in grade school who needs a ton of accommodations for his testing. In our case, everyone is fully aware that the accommodations aren't really getting that close to level, but we do what we can. I don't know what representations people are making with respect to college/grad school admissions testing, but I'm guessing it's variable based on the extent of accommodations required.
LawBeefaroni wrote:
ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:02 pm
If you completely eliminate standardized testing from the educational application process, then the issue obviously goes away. As long as it still plays a role in admissions, though, there has to be accommodations for students who legitimately need them. Any combination of eliminating accommodations while keeping standardized testing as part of the process is unworkable (and would violate the ADA).
Well, yeah, sure. I guess if you want to comply with laws and stuff. :wink:
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by em2nought »

Now they're making a big deal about Aunt Becky Jr. not filling out her own applications to USC? I don't get what the big deal is? I'm pretty sure I filled out my college roommate's Pell Grant application. Hell, I can still remember his social security number almost forty years later. LOL I have nice penmanship. Or are they talking about answering essays for someone else? I don't remember having any essays or such back in the good old days, but then I was an underachiever and only applied to local university and ROTC scholarships. :think:
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Burn!
Trevor Noah joked: “The whole country has been rocked by the news that hundreds of parents have been accused of bribing their kids’ way into elite colleges — and also U.S.C.”
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by LawBeefaroni »

NEEDHAM — It was a modest house by this town’s standards, a center-entrance colonial, three bedrooms and a two-car garage on a quarter-acre lot. The inside hadn’t welcomed a renovator in many, many years, and the outside didn’t wear its age particularly well.

Its owner: Peter Brand, Harvard University’s legendary fencing coach. Its assessed value: $549,300.

So when the house sold to a wealthy Maryland businessman for close to a million dollars in May 2016, the town’s top assessor was so dumbfounded that he wrote the following in his notes: “Makes no sense.”

Now it might...
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by em2nought »

LawBeefaroni wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:46 pm
NEEDHAM — It was a modest house by this town’s standards, a center-entrance colonial, three bedrooms and a two-car garage on a quarter-acre lot. The inside hadn’t welcomed a renovator in many, many years, and the outside didn’t wear its age particularly well.

Its owner: Peter Brand, Harvard University’s legendary fencing coach. Its assessed value: $549,300.

So when the house sold to a wealthy Maryland businessman for close to a million dollars in May 2016, the town’s top assessor was so dumbfounded that he wrote the following in his notes: “Makes no sense.”

Now it might...
I might have chosen more esoteric pursuits and disciplines if I had known they "could" pay so well. Even just at the $549,300 level. LOL :mrgreen:
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Isgrimnur »

Stanford
Stanford has rescinded the admission of a female student whose application was linked with the bribery scandal rocking college admissions nationwide, the University announced on Tuesday.

The former student included fabricated sailing credentials in her application, which is grounds for expulsion according to University practice. Though she was accepted through the standard process and not as a recruited athlete, her admission was followed by a $500,000 contribution to Stanford’s sailing program paid through former head coach John Vandemoer, who was fired after agreeing to plead guilty for accepting donations in exchange for recommending non-sailors as recruited athletes.

The student, who has not been publicly identified, is no longer on Stanford’s campus, and her credits have been vacated by the University, Tuesday’s press release states.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Sailing...huh.

I read this article over the weekend and thought surely, sailing isn't really still getting kids into school but yep, guess so.


The first was sports. Legacy admissions have often been called affirmative action for white people, but the rich-kid sports—water polo, tennis, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, and even (God help us all) sailing and actual polo—are the true affirmative action for the rich. I first became acquainted with this fact when I was preparing for a meeting with the parents of a girl who was a strong but not dazzling student; the list her parents had submitted, however, consisted almost exclusively of Ivy League colleges. I brought her file in to my boss for guidance. She looked it over and then, noticing something in the section on extracurricular activities and tapping it decisively with her pen, said, “Oh, she’ll get in—volleyball.”

Volleyball? Yale was going to let her in—above half a dozen much more academically qualified and many much more interesting kids on my roster—because she played volleyball? I soon learned that the coaches of all these sports were allowed a certain number of recruits each year, and that so long as a kid met basic academic qualifications—which our kids easily did—the coaches got their way. I never heard an admissions person question a coach; “She’s on the soccer list,” the admissions person would say, and we’d move on to the next kid.


Also, from the article:
The second flaw in the system was an important change to the way untimed testing is reported to the colleges. When I began the job, the SAT and the ACT offered untimed testing to students with learning disabilities, provided that they had been diagnosed by a professional. However, an asterisk appeared next to untimed scores, alerting the college that the student had taken the test without a time limit. But during my time at the school, this asterisk was found to violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the testing companies dropped it. Suddenly it was possible for everyone with enough money to get a diagnosis that would grant their kid two full days—instead of four hours—to take the SAT, and the colleges would never know. Today, according to Slate, “in places like Greenwich, Conn., and certain zip codes of New York City and Los Angeles, the percentage of untimed test-taking is said to be close to 50 percent.” Taking a test under normal time limits in one of these neighborhoods is a sucker’s game—you’ve voluntarily handicapped yourself.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:33 pm Also, from the article:
The second flaw in the system was an important change to the way untimed testing is reported to the colleges. When I began the job, the SAT and the ACT offered untimed testing to students with learning disabilities, provided that they had been diagnosed by a professional. However, an asterisk appeared next to untimed scores, alerting the college that the student had taken the test without a time limit. But during my time at the school, this asterisk was found to violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the testing companies dropped it. Suddenly it was possible for everyone with enough money to get a diagnosis that would grant their kid two full days—instead of four hours—to take the SAT, and the colleges would never know. Today, according to Slate, “in places like Greenwich, Conn., and certain zip codes of New York City and Los Angeles, the percentage of untimed test-taking is said to be close to 50 percent.” Taking a test under normal time limits in one of these neighborhoods is a sucker’s game—you’ve voluntarily handicapped yourself.
The SAT isn't even that difficult a test.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Felicity Huffman, others to plead guilty in U.S. college admissions scandal
Actress Felicity Huffman and 13 other people have agreed to plead guilty to participating in what prosecutors call the largest college admissions scam uncovered in U.S. history, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
...
“I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions,” Huffman said in a statement.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Huffman for president!
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Isgrimnur »

I’m sure they probably have worked out some sweetheart deal where it just costs them more money and some time.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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List to grow?

Federal prosecutors from Boston have interviewed people in Los Angeles this week, asking about additional students whose parents have not been charged in the college admissions scandal, people familiar with the matter told The Times.

The prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Atty. Eric Rosen, are interviewing potential witnesses in Los Angeles to bolster their existing cases and build new ones against people who have not yet been charged, according to two sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly...

...Prosecutors indicated in a recent court filing they’ve collected evidence that can be used to charge additional people. In a request for a protective order on evidence that will soon be turned over to defense attorneys, they said the wiretaps, financial documents, emails and surveillance photographs contain information about “targets of the investigation who have not yet been publicly charged.”
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Huffman pleads guilty
Prosecutors on Monday recommended the actress receive four months behind bars.

The actress broke down in tears while explaining that she had requested, for legitimate medical reasons, extra time for Sofia Grace to take her test. The teen has been seeing a neuropsychologist since she was 8, Huffman said.

“I didn’t want to give the impression the neuropsychologist knew about this," she said through tears, according to NBC Boston. "Everything else they say I did, I did.”

Huffman is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 13.
...
The actress has said her daughter had no idea what she was doing behind her back. Sofia Grace was a student at Los Angeles High School for the Arts, when her mom was arrested in March.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Isgrimnur »

WaPo
Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced Friday to two weeks in jail for paying $15,000 in a conspiracy to inflate the SAT score of her older daughter — a punishment that sets a benchmark for what other accused parents could face in the college admissions bribery scandal.
...
Eric S. Rosen, an assistant U.S. attorney, pressed the judge to send Huffman to prison for 30 days. The prosecutor dismissed Huffman’s explanations about her state of mind as she was committing the crime.
...
The punishment Talwani chose for Huffman could influence perceptions of what sentences should, or will, be delivered to others convicted in an extraordinary scandal that has shaken public confidence in college admissions. Fifty-one people, including 34 parents, have been charged. Nineteen of the accused parents — including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli — are fighting the charges.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Isgrimnur wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 12:49 pm WaPo
Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced Friday to two weeks in jail for paying $15,000 in a conspiracy to inflate the SAT score of her older daughter — a punishment that sets a benchmark for what other accused parents could face in the college admissions bribery scandal.
...
Eric S. Rosen, an assistant U.S. attorney, pressed the judge to send Huffman to prison for 30 days. The prosecutor dismissed Huffman’s explanations about her state of mind as she was committing the crime.
...
The punishment Talwani chose for Huffman could influence perceptions of what sentences should, or will, be delivered to others convicted in an extraordinary scandal that has shaken public confidence in college admissions. Fifty-one people, including 34 parents, have been charged. Nineteen of the accused parents — including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli — are fighting the charges.
Curious what you all think about Felicity serving jail time for this. Personally I think it's ridiculous but I'm probably biased. I can understand they didn't want to let her off too easily because people would complain rich people just use money to buy their way out, but this seems a bit egregious. I read the judge wanted to "punish" her so just doing community service wasn't enough because it was something she already did. But surely there are different forms of community service that would serve to be "punishing" enough? Like make her pick up trash on the roads or something, isn't that humiliating enough? And btw how did her husband get off scott free? Not very chivalrous lol.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Isgrimnur »

It’s not like recidivism is going to be an issue, so punish now. It was a long-running conspiracy. I’d like to see a class action lawsuit by people denied entry to get discovery to see who was first loser. But that would punish the schools more than the cheaters.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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I think part of the sentence is putting the public on notice that this is not a harmless crime and that it will be taken seriously.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by LawBeefaroni »

It's also about what she was charged with/plead guilty to:
pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Those are not insignificant federal charges.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 11:00 am It's also about what she was charged with/plead guilty to:
pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Those are not insignificant federal charges.
Isn't it a bit crazy that those were the charges? Like, if you ask the average person on the street what she did, how many times are you going to get mail fraud?
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by El Guapo »

stessier wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 11:07 am
LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 11:00 am It's also about what she was charged with/plead guilty to:
pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Those are not insignificant federal charges.
Isn't it a bit crazy that those were the charges? Like, if you ask the average person on the street what she did, how many times are you going to get mail fraud?
Well, I don't think most people on the street know what mail fraud is. And what she did (lying to people to gain a material benefit) is pretty much the definition of fraud.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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USA Today
Gordon Caplan, a prominent New York attorney, was sentenced Thursday to one month in federal prison for paying $75,000 to have someone correct answers on his daughter's ACT to inflate her score.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also sentenced him to one year of home supervision upon release, a $50,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.

Caplan, a former partner at one of the world's largest international law firms, is the fourth parent sentenced in the nation's college admissions scandal. He will report to prison Nov. 6.

Talwani called Caplan one of the least culpable defendants in the college admissions case but nonetheless an "active" participant. She noted how Caplan threatened the ACT with litigation after the testing company objected to extra testing time granted for his daughter.
...
Caplan was let go as co-chairman of the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in April after being charged in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions case. His law license in New York is currently suspended.
...
Talwani sentenced two parents who took part in the recruitment scam, Devin Sloane and Stephen Semprevivo, to four months in prison. The two fathers admitted to paying $250,000 and $400,000 to Singer, respectively.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by McNutt »

It's getting serious. I wonder if he can pay someone to reduce his sentence.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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CNN
Four parents who initially fought charges in the college admissions scam have agreed to plead guilty over the past few days, according to the US Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts.

The plea changes come as federal prosecutors are expected to file additional charges against some defendants who pleaded not guilty in the case, a law enforcement official told CNN. The additional charges, which are said to include bribery, could be filed as early as Tuesday, according to the official.

Douglas Hodge, Manuel Henriquez, Elizabeth Henriquez and Michelle Janavs have each agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, prosecutors said. All four have plea hearings set for Monday.

The threat of future charges reflects prosecutors' carrot-and-stick approach to this case as they use potential charges to try to get defendants to plead guilty.

"The carrot is, 'Take a quick plea and get your best shot at a lower sentence,'" CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said in April. "And the stick is, 'We have additional charges that we'll bring if you don't plead by that date.'"
With apologies to Unagi.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in jail. Her husband gets 5 months.

They were facing a lot more, but the prosecutors case took a bit of a hit when some information was delayed in being turned over and apparently some other stuff strongly suggested they thought they were donating to a legit charity.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by McNutt »

Can she turn herself in to begin her sentence whenever she wants? How does that work?
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Jaymann »

Lori Loughlin released from prison after serving 2 months.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

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Guess it was a

Image

Full House

...

......

........God, I hate myself.
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Re: [News] College Admissions Cheating Scam

Post by Isgrimnur »

NPR
Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and John Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive, were found guilty after about 10 hours of deliberations in the case that exposed a scheme to get undeserving applicants into college by falsely portraying them as star athletes.

Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, was charged with paying $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn't even make it onto her high school's varsity team. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, was accused of paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters' ways into Harvard and Stanford.
...
At the center of the case were a series of secretly recorded phone calls between Singer and the parents that prosecutors said proved Abdelaziz and Wilson were in on the scheme. The FBI wiretapped Singer's calls and then convinced the admissions consultant to begin cooperating with investigators in 2018 in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
...
Wilson and Abdelaziz were both convicted of fraud and bribery conspiracy charges. Wilson was also convicted of additional charges of bribery, wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
...
Heinel and two coaches — ex-USC water polo coach Jovan Vavic and former Wake Forest University women's volleyball coach William Ferguson — are scheduled to stand trial in November. Three other parents are expected to face jurors in January.
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