Sir would like to ask parents and prospective parents:
If, for a sum of money, get your child into one of the world's top schools (like Harvard).
How much do you think it will cost?
Don't be too surprised, the answer is – 1.2 million.
For $1.2 million, you can get your child into school with their bags.
Shocked?
This figure is not sir's estimate.
It is because of the seized transaction price.
Buying into Elite Schools: A Storm of Fraud in American Colleges
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
"How much can I get my kids into Harvard?"
"One and a half million dollars."
This trade conversation comes from the largest college admissions fraud case in U.S. history in 2019, Operation Campus Blues.
Elite celebrities in society send their children to the world's top schools through fraud and bribery.
There was a national uproar.
Stanford, Yale, THE UNIVERSITY of Southern California...
The case involved several prestigious schools in the United States, and more than 50 people were charged with crimes.
The parents involved in the fraud include celebrities from all walks of life in the United States, as well as several Hollywood stars.
Best known for being the "Desperate Housewives" star, Golden Globe winner Felicity Hoffman.
△ Images of Felicity's involvement
What is even more unexpected is that there are also the figures of China's rich people.
Zhao Tao, Shandong's richest man, was suspected of spending $6.5 million (about 44 million yuan) to send his daughter Zhao Yusi to Stanford University, and after the incident was exposed, Zhao Yusi was expelled from Stanford.
And the mastermind behind everything is a humble counselor:
Richie Singer.
Eventually, he also became the bait for the FBI to eventually solve the case.
The documentary uses Ritchie as a clue to restore various details in the case through scene reproduction.
Education is a mirror of society.
The School Blues Campaign, while an educational scandal, also reflects some long-standing social rifts.
01
Before reviewing the case, let's first understand a little knowledge.
Admissions rules for U.S. colleges and universities.
It has its own set of strict systems and standards, which are very different from ours.
The first level is the ACT and SAT test. Commonly known as the "American College Entrance Examination".
The scores of the ACT or SAT test are an important reference for students admitted to American universities.
If you don't get more than the established score, then the top universities are basically useless.
Got the score, and then the second level: applying to school.
U.S. college admissions is an application system, where students apply to schools according to their own circumstances and volunteers, and provide information.
Unlike China's college admissions, which only recognize the score of the college entrance examination, American colleges and universities should examine the comprehensive quality according to the student information.
Not only refer to the results of the college entrance examination, but also combine the learning situation, special skills and so on in the middle school period.
For example, if you don't take enough courses in high school, then sorry, a good university will not be able to get you.
So.
The United States has the most complete higher education system in the world, with more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States, and it is easy to go to college.
But the United States also has the world's top universities, for the world's outstanding students, it is very difficult to go to a prestigious school.
The best universities in the United States are basically private universities.
Without government funding, where does the funding for teaching and research come from?
High tuition fees, as well as social donations.
Also because it is a private school and does not use taxpayer money, it does not have to provide absolute fairness like a public school.
You can follow your own rules and enroll autonomously.
There are also some unspoken rules implicit in it.
The first is a "backdoor" reserved for the top rich.
As long as you are rich enough, you can take the money to throw your children into prestigious schools.
This kind of money throwing is also called donations.
For example, a famous American developer once donated $2.5 million to Harvard University to help his son successfully enroll.
But without the 2.5 million, his child's mediocre qualifications may not be up to Harvard's threshold.
This kind of donation to lower the admission threshold has a long history in the United States, and everyone knows it well and is in line with the law.
You can simply understand it as the "school choice fee" of some well-known high schools in our country.
And only a handful of top rich people can afford to make this donation.
$2.5 million is just the price for the year... Nowadays, if you want to enter a prestigious school by donations, the price has reached tens of millions.
Another unspoken rule is for the American elite.
They do not have the capital of the top rich, and they can take tens of millions to send their children to prestigious schools.
But they have some sort of invisible "offer".
Sir said earlier, American college admissions is not only to recognize the grades, but to consider the comprehensive quality of students.
If your grades are not good enough, you can make up for it with other specialties.
In layman's terms, it is a special student.
The specialty of students preferred by famous American schools is a niche sport.
For example, sailing, water polo, fencing, equestrianism and so on.
What are the common features of these movements?
Ordinary people can't afford to play.
In this way, the university constitutes the structure it needs through the strict admission conditions on the surface, as well as some unspoken rules:
Most of the high-achieving students, a small number of elite students, and a very small number of children of the top rich.
While it doesn't sound fair, it's a long-standing tradition in American society.
As long as it is within this set of rules, it is legal.
So, how did the scandal break out?
02
Richie Singer, the central plotter of the case.
He worked as a college basketball coach before moving into the career of counselors.
Richie's background as a college coach has given him a deep understanding of the various avenues of American college admissions.
His fees are not expensive, hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can let the children of some elite families steady into the elite school.
Therefore, with the strength of Zhao Yusi's family, it is completely possible to reduce the admission threshold by donating money to the school.
But the problem was, they went to Richie.
Not only did it violate the law, but it also cost dozens of times the price of American parents, becoming the buyer who spent the most money in this scandal.
How exactly does Ritchie's cheap "side door" work?
As mentioned earlier, there are two levels to pass in U.S. college admissions: the college entrance examination and the application.
For both levels, Ritchie has a corresponding strategy.
The American college entrance examination is very strict, no less than our college entrance examination, and it is difficult to cheat than to ascend to the sky.
Specifically, see the movie "Genius Gunner", which is adapted from the cheating incident exposed by the SAT overseas examination hall in 2014.
But at the same time, it's also very user-friendly.
Candidates who can prove that they have a learning disability, etc., will receive special care.
One is to extend the examination time, multi-day testing; the second is to have a separate, one-on-one examination room.
Richie exploited this humane loophole.
He first instructed his parent clients to deliberately act clumsy and obtuse when passing the intelligence test in order to get the "special care" of the college entrance examination.
Next, he has a dedicated test shooter Mark, who is also a proctor.
Immediately after the candidate has turned in his papers, Mark checks the answers and changes them to make sure he gets the score he wants.
This score can't be ridiculously high, but it can help these kids have an advantage when it comes to applying to college.
The price of the operation is not expensive, tens of thousands of dollars, and these elite families can afford it.
Once you have a score as your ticket, you will begin to conquer the second level - application.
Richie's way of operating, in simple terms, is to exploit the loopholes of various preferential policies.
More elementary is a way similar to that of minorities, which we are also familiar with.
A little more advanced is to package these children into "sports students" that college likes.
He first used PS, posing and other techniques to make up photos of children's movements and fabricated sports materials.
The daughter of Hollywood actress Lori Lovrin, the famous Internet celebrity Ovilia Jed, entered the University of Southern California by posing as a rowing specialty student with a posing photo sitting on a rowing machine.
You say, such a clumsy method will not be exposed by the school?
Of course not.
He has developed long-term cooperation sports coaches at various universities, such as Yale, the University of Southern California, Stanford and so on.
Through bribes, these coaches will directly recommend certain "sports students" to enroll.
In fact, they don't know anything and have never been trained.
Such a dragon cheats and sends children to prestigious schools.
03
There are trades because there are markets.
The reason why Rich was able to succeed in this way for many years was that he successfully exploited the anxieties of these elite parents.
Everyone wants to go to a prestigious school.
Ordinary people's children want to enter the top famous schools because they want to change their fate and achieve a class leap.
The superstition of elite families about elite schools stems from the consolidation of their own class.
One career counselor said the most common situations in their industry are:
"It's the parents who apply to college
Kids are the props they use to apply to college."
In this case, too many similar phenomena have emerged.
Most parents go through Richie's side door to send their children to prestigious schools, which is hidden from their children.
They tried their best to make the child believe that he had obtained a high score on the test by his own level, rather than the parents who had changed the answer by finding a gunman.
The experience of Internet celebrity Ovilia can also reflect the psychology of some parents.
As you can see from her previous videos, she has no interest in going to school herself, because she is already a successful enough influencer.
But her actress mother and designer father were determined to send her to the University of Southern California.
Ovilia said that because none of them had gone to college themselves.
The parents of these elite classes are far more eager than their children to go to prestigious schools.
I am also more afraid that because of "children who have not attended a prestigious school", the whole family will fall from the class in which they are located.
But nowadays, the competition to enter elite universities is becoming more and more fierce, and the admission threshold is being raised by outstanding students from all over the world.
As a result, the original set of rules that were sufficient for the elite gradually became less effective.
Ritchie is the new shortcut they can choose in this anxiety.
Ironically.
Although the college board and the ACT have long acknowledged that sat and ACT tests, rich children are inherently more likely to score high marks than ordinary children.
This is easy to understand.
For example, is admission based on merit complete "fairness"?
You know, not everyone can afford to buy a school district house, so that children can "step into the door of a famous university with one foot" from middle school.
Not every family can afford expensive tutors.
So, even if it is a meritocracy.
There is also a high probability that the rich will win the educational arms race.
But they still have to cheat and cheat, and directly advance.
And what is deeper soil?
After the scandal was exposed, did the colleges and universities really, as they claimed, not knowing that the coaches below were doing these things?
The school and the admissions office have an unconditional trust in these sports coaches to give them so much power in admissions.
Even if the problem is obvious, the facts are not verified.
Perhaps, you can glimpse the ambiguous attitude of the school.
John Vandimer, a Stanford sailing coach involved in the case, mentioned in his details of the case that the school's athletic director had expressed his knowledge of Richie. (Stanford later denied this.)
In another place, when Rich first came to Stanford University to meet John, he actually crossed the strict access control system and came to him unimpeded.
"His connections at Stanford
I'm not alone."
Every year, America's elite schools do their best in their own ranking wars.
In this society, famous schools also have their own "class anxiety".
The status of the elite needs to be decorated by elite schools.
The status of famous schools also needs to be consolidated from the elite.
Talent, capital, alumni networks...
The mutually beneficial relationship between the two is deeply rooted in the reality of American society.
This earth-shattering scandal will of course make American colleges and universities and relevant departments step up efforts to fill loopholes in the admissions system.
But will everything fundamentally change?
One respondent expressed pessimism.
It makes people angry, but in turn, it makes universities look more expensive and desirable than before.
This very cleverly echoes what another interviewee said:
"In America, we love and hate the rich
Disgusting and fascinating"
Ritchie's "side door" was quickly sealed.
And the elite universities born in this soil still open the "back door" for those who are willing to pay.
As long as the mutually beneficial relationship between elite schools and elites has not changed, there will still be the next Ritchie who will find ways to tear open other illegal "side doors".
It's just that it takes a little time for the storm to subside.
And, the price is worth taking a bigger risk.
At the beginning of the scandal.
There are also people who want to buy Harvard for $10 million.
The most unpleasant is not tasteful.
It is those students who can only pass the "naked test" to enter the elite school.
They are still yearning for what they consider to be an incomparably noble temple of knowledge, looking forward to the rewards of their efforts, and looking forward to a piece of luck that will fall on their heads.
Some people fell off the list, acted as the denominator of the admission rate, and drank tears alone.
Some people were admitted, but that joy, in fact, some people had already preemptively booked.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Motor of the Summer Palace