You dont need to study harder to be well rounded. You just have to write a check. A nightmare. Coaches, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. It may have looked like a hollywood premiere at times. Lori, pay for my tuition, lori i do want the experience of, like, game days, partying, i dont really care about school. Lori, are you satisfied . Do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity . Two famous actresses caught up in what prosecutors are calling the Largest College admissions scam ever. Crazed parents doing whatever it takes. Its unbelievable. It is so competitive to get your kid into school today. The parents are terrified. Its parents who are driving a lot of this craziness. A fierce competition. Top schools like yale, wake forest, georgetown. And it starts early. The youngest weve got for College Consulting would be third grade. Theyre pushed, theyre prodded. Theyre in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. You may begin. Its a big money business. We will create packages that can break a Million Dollars. And the real scandal may be what is legal. A side door for rich kid sports. Theres only certain families that can afford to have Children Play some of these sports. Donors, getting a leg up. We allow them to play this corrupt game in admissions. The system is broken. Who is to blame . They set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. Finding the road back. Dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper into which path is the clearest one to take. To what college is supposed to be. Throngs of people hail the end of the war in europe. In america in 1945, anything seemed possible. And what a thrill. With world war ii over, the country was revving its engines. Almost 50 million motor vehicles. And for a surging middle class, the American Dream had a new name. The g. I. Bill. For the first time, almost all who had served could go to college for free. Any kind of education and in any part of the country. Millions jumped at the chance. But the most elite schools still remained closed to many. They were private clubs, open mostly to members of americas aristocracy. White anglosaxon protestants. Now has the edge for the ivy league crown. At harvard, one man wanted to open the gates. Really get going. The schools president , James Bryant Conant asked himself, what would Thomas Jefferson do . Jefferson had written that america should create an aristocracy of talent to replace the aristocracy of birth and wealth. Now hes about to enter an environment more in keeping with his social position. Most harvard men, and they were still all men, came from prep schools with the right pedigree. At college, he will meet men of his own kind. They have servants who would come with them to harvard. They would put on their tuxedos every night and go to debutante balls. Good manners often trumped good grades. Extremely handsome and charming. He writes wonderful thank you notes. Out there in america, james conant believed, those working with their hands were jeffersons diamonds in the rough. Just waiting to be discovered. Lets find those people and bring them to harvard. But how to find them . Conant decided that we needed a test. Not to measure knowledge, greek, or higher mathematics. That would favor the wellschooled. This really isnt the kind of a test you can study for. Instead we need a test that measures innate aptitude. Harvard had such a test for scholarship students. Ready . Begin. And it became you may begin. Americas s. A. T. A test for all americans. Last year, 2 Million Students took it. James conants dream of a meritocracy and admit you to the fellowship of educated men. Of the smartest, outshining the most privileged, seemed to be coming true. The s. A. T. Was meant to be the great leveler. It would give everyone a chance to climb the ladder of success. And for decades, it did, bringing millions of new faces into americas establishment. But how did we go from creating an aristocracy of talent to spawning a criminal conspiracy . This College Admissions scam story, the biggest ever prosecuted. Do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity . The College Admissions scandal. Lori, lori, pay for my tuition, lori is there anything you want to say to the charges against you . From the moment it hit the headlines no comment, no further comment. The massive sting exposing the ugly truth. America was appalled. Are you satisfied with what the judge decided today . It is morally outrageous. You dont need to work anymore. You dont need to take your time and do the right thing. You just have to write a check. Seems like wooe were working for nothing if theyre coming and buying their way into college. Having a lot of money is not part of what makes a person a person. The story behind the scandal was the stuff of tabloids. Whos who of coaches, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. Felicity all my favorites. Youre asking for a bribe . Pretending youre a bum . I got my checkbook. The actress, felicity huffman, pleaded guilty to paying 15,000 is prison the right sentence . To inflate her daughters s. A. T. Score. I want to model for my daughters having a voice in the world. And, you know, that means having influence and having power, and to tell you the truth, having money. Lori, straight ahead. We may have well, he may have embellished, lied a bit on our application. Lori loughlin and her husband pleaded not guilty after allegedly spending half a Million Dollars to concoct phony profiles of their daughters as accomplished rowers. Daughter olivia jade got into usc. Oh, yeah. Even though she was neither a rower winded. Nor scholar. I do want the experience of, like, game days, partying. I dont really care about school, as you guys well know. This is a game. Just realize that this is a game. At the center of the scheme, independent College Counselor rick singer. Sir, why did you game the system . My key method unlocks the full potential of your son or daughter and sets them on a course to excel in life. Singer showed an ability to con and dazzle even very successful people. They send their plane to come pick me up, come to the meeting for a couple hours, two, three hours, put me back on the plane, send me to the next place i need to go. Lori, straight ahead. Felicity the hollywood names made the headlines. Are you guilty . But some other parents were the most dumbfounding. Singer charged this woman 50,000 to have a stranger take her sons a. C. T. Her name is Jane Buckingham and she is a parenting expert. Every working mom comes to me and says, how do i do it all . Guess what, you cant. No one is superwoman. So dont try to be. She even gave her sons handwriting sample to make the forging easier. Also, dont let guilt be your guide. But buckingham did plead guilty to fraud. Corruption is almost inevitable. It doesnt surprise me in the least that some people would try to game the system. The system is inherently phony. Its unbelievable. It is so competitive to get your kid into school today. Frenzied parents lying and paying bribes to give their children a leg up. Not exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he envisioned the meritocracy. But the founding father could not have foreseen this crazed competition. Its all because a fouryear degree has become the great economic divider in america. People who have one will earn about twice as much in their lifetimes as those who dont. And those who get the Golden Ticket and Ivy League Degree can, government figures show, earn more than double the income of other college graduates. Parents get more and more anxious. Thats why they turn to independent counselors. You know, theyre desperate. There are at least 15,000 private College Counselors in america. You can find dozens of them on youtube. Hey, guys, have you ever wondered how to get that elusive wow factor . Today i want to speak about what you should never speak about during an Ivy League Admissions interview. Many are reputable. But they are largely unregulated even as their business is exploding. We decline families all the time. A c average isnt going to get you into harvard and theres nothing any consultant is going to do about that. Well, any legitimate consultant. Private counselor allen koh likes to start his clients early. The youngest were talking to them is fifth grade. The youngest weve got for College Consulting is third grade. You heard that right, third grade. Koh shared clients with rick singer but says he had no idea who singer was doing. I was shocked that i knew someone who did this. I was shocked that this was even possible. And Something Else surprised him. The sums of money involved in the scandal. I think a lot of people were shocked because they were so big. I was shocked because they were so small. Our most Expensive College application package is 350,000. That price doesnt even include test preparation. Everything is a la carte for test prep. For families who have special circumstances, we will create packages that can break a Million Dollars. Mr. Singer, do you have anything to say to the students who are in college now, what this might do to their lives . Money is at the heart of the College Admissions scandal. But more troubling than the bribes paid are the legal ways that money is used to corrupt the process. Wealthy parents spend lavishly to prepare their children. From childhood on, theyre pushed, theyre prodded, theyre in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. And it pays off. If you make over 200,000 a year, your kids will score on average 400 points higher on the s. A. T. Than kids from low income families. Wealth also gives students a big advantage if their parents are donors. At some schools, giving 10 million isnt enough because 10 million makes no impact on their school. They want 30 million, 40 million, 50 million. Rick singer convinced parents that his schemes were actually a bargain. He was saying to the parents, yeah, youre paying hundreds of thousands of dollars but this is going to save you money. Otherwise you would have to give 10 million to one of these schools to get your schools in. Dan golden is a pulitzer prizewinning journalist. He wrote a bestselling expose called the price of admission. As his own alma mater, harvard, he looked at how often the children of big donors gained admission. Harvard has this group called the committee on university resources, Something Like 400 people. Then i came across Jared Kushners parents on this committee. And i was interested because most the people on the committee were alumni, and Jared Kushners parents had no affiliation with harvard. Whos adviser Jared Kushner, then an unknown teenager, applied to harvard. I began speaking with people familiar with Jared KushnersHigh School Record and it turned out he was not a particularly outstanding or motivated student. And there was no lack of people willing to attest to that. Charles kushner had donated 2. 5 million to harvard. Jared got in. So what i dont understand is, how is it that harvard can let Jared Kushner buy his way in but it doesnt take a hit reputationally . We should adjust and just say, oh, okay, thats what a harvard degree means . All right. The Kushner Family has said there is no connection between the donations and Jared Kushners acceptance. Harvard does not comment on individual applicants. Ivy League Schools do point out that large donations give them the chance to educate students who could not otherwise afford them. They also contend that some children of large donors are rejected. What is clear is that in this meritocracy, it Still Matters who your parents are, especially if they went to the school of your choice. Legacy admission gives strong preference to the sons and daughters of alumni. Legacy admissions, the idea that you get a special break because your parents went there, why, is this feudal england . I cant imagine what the thought process is. Theyre terrified what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference. They believe a lot of alumni donate in the hopes of getting their children into the school. According to the harvard crimson, about onethird of last years freshman class had relatives who went to harvard. Legacy admission is deeply entrenched at many toptier schools. To understand where it all began, let me take you back to a troubling chapter from more than a century ago. They founded schools that their sons might absorb the accumulation of mans knowledge and wisdom. In the early 1900s, the number of applications from jewish boys to elite schools began rising. They tended on average to overperform academically and to, you know, have a sort of educationobsessed culture. Antisemitism was far more prevalent then and concern grew over the number of jews at ivy League Schools. They came knocking at the door of the ivies and the ivies were very uncomfortable with that. At harvard, president lowell openly called it the jewish problem. His solution, count the jews to see how quickly their numbers were rising. They felt that jews will take over. According to this historian, jerome carabel, administrators pored over records but it wasnt always clear who was jewish. So a ranking system was used. J1 for students who were clearly jewish. J2, more than likely jewish. J3, could be jewish. The findings, in 1922 harvard was 21 jewish. The president decided to take action. I am instituting a jewish quota. There was strong pushback to the ugly idea of counting jews. They looked for ways to hold down jewish enrollment without actually having a specific jewish quota number or an antijewish policy. Several other ivy League Schools, yale, columbia, were also dealing with the socalled jewish problem. One answer turned out to be legacy admissions. One of a Greater Society of free and enlightened men. Schools began giving preference to the sons of alumni. The idea was if they did so, they would not be able to take in as many jews. Up next, the real corruption. Sports. Rick singers dark scheme. What do you want to say to your former players . To cash in on the enormous clout of college coaches. [woof] everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. Expedia. For everyone you love. paul Wireless Network claims americas most reliable network. The nations largest and most reliable network. The best network is even better . Best, fastest, best. Enough. Sprints doing things differently. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great, but dont just take my word for it. Try it out and decide for yourself. Switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. No matter what life throws down roomba is up for the challenge. Only roomba uses 2 multisurface rubber brushes that powerfully clean up debris on all your floors. And only the roomba i7 system empties its bin into allergenlock™ bags that trap 99 of allergens. Forget about vacuuming for months. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba™ what do you want to say to your former players, do you have any remorse, mr. Meredith . Your former players who trusted you . Yales soccer coach took over 400,000. He pleaded guilty to taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Stanfords sailing coach agreed to take over 600,000 for the sailing team. Anything to say about your charge . The fbi agreed the uc tennis coach was paid more than 90,000. Any comments . Are you guilty . In all ten coaches and athletic officials were accused in rick singers scheme. Five have pleaded guilty and five not guilty. Mr. Singer, do you have anything to stay . How about all the students who were qualified and cheated out of this kept out of school because of what you did. Its no coincidence that College Sports is at the heart of the biggest College Admissions scandal in history. Singer worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles for their kids. Singer knew that the recruitment of athletes was a weak link in the admissions process. Students athletic credentials had been fabricated. Charging documents say he accepted millions of dollars in bribes. Coaches had enormous power to choose their recruits. What made you want to plead guilty . It was tough to bribe a whole committee, but you could bribe one person. Schools say theyre addressing the problem, stressing that they were victims in rick singers scheme. But the system they created lives on, where some kids get huge advantages in admissions through the side door of athletics. They werent the victims. I mean, thats ludicrous. They set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. When people think of College Sports, they often think of all american favorites like football and basketball. Sports with lots of publicity and many low income and minority students. But there is also rowing and lacrosse and water polo and other sports that a lot of rich white kids play and that many College Applicants cant afford. Elite colleges reserve a huge number of slots for all athletes. More than 30 of the class in some schools. And they dramatically lower admissions standards to let the athletes in. With all the preferences, the preference for recruited athletes is the biggest in terms of how much it helps candidates. Take harvard, for example. Every applicants academic record is ranked on a scale from one to six with one being the highes