USC says students connected to cheating scheme will be denied admission
All University of Southern California applicants who are connected to the admissions cheating scheme will be denied admission, university spokesman Gary Polakovic said Wednesday, CNN reported.
A case-by-case review will be conducted for students who are already enrolled at USC and may be connected to the scheme. USC will "make informed, appropriate decisions once those reviews have been completed. Some of these individuals may have been minors at the time of their application process," he said.
The Mastermind. The Brains. The Coach. Meet the cooperating witnesses in the college admissions scam
The announcement comes a day after the nationwide scandal exposed what federal prosecutors describe as a corrupt exchange of wealth, fame and influence for student admissions to the nation's most elite universities.
Fifty people -- from Hollywood stars and top industry CEOs to college coaches and standardized test administrators -- stand accused of participating in a scheme to cheat on admissions tests and admit students to leading institutions as athletes regardless of their abilities, prosecutors revealed Tuesday in a federal indictment. The scandal is being called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted.
As the alleged culprits, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, position their defenses, the fallout continues for players across this wide-ranging case, which spans six states and raises seminal questions about how level the postsecondary playing field really is.
Cheat. Bribe. Lie. Here's how the college admissions scam allegedly worked
Still hanging in the balance is the fate of the privileged scholars, at least some of whom may not have known about their parents' alleged acts. It was no accident that none were immediately charged, US Attorney Andrew Lelling of Massachusetts said Tuesday.
"The prime movers of this fraud" were the parents and other defendants, Lelling said, though he noted some students may face charges down the road.
Meantime, officials at universities including Yale, Stanford and Georgetown must now examine criminal claims made against key staffers, some of whom already have part ways.
Perhaps most critically, they'll also have to answer for whether qualified students were denied entry into their programs in lieu of the children of the rich and famous.
"For every student admitted through fraud," Lelling said, "an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected."
Via CNN
My view: This isn't a new thing, some rich and famous parents buy their children's way straight to the top, even if their kids are not clever. That's the reason why you see some of them who are medical Doctors don't actually practice, they just want the tittle. Some spoiled kids don't even sit for their exams themselves. You'd think corruption, fraud, scams and bribery is only practiced in developing/underdeveloped countries, but no, they learned from the best, we are now witnessing its origin. So is USC's new name 'University Of Spoiled Children' or designer University, because if you're from a poor home you can't get a place even if you're very brainy. For every spoiled student admitted through fraud an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected. The children are complicit as well because they knew that their grade can't get them a place in elite Universities. Corruption in higher education affects the developed and the developing world equally, even if the motivation and the actors are different. Rich and famous families have been gaming the system forever to get their children into top schools. Clearly we don’t want spoiled children with pedigrees not earned operating on us, engineering our buildings and bridges.