Slider image courtesy of Eric Schultz.
Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were recently charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering, along with 14 other parents. Loughlin and Giannulli supposedly paid $500,000 in exchange for having their daughters recruited as members of the crew team for the University of Southern California (USC), although they have never played the sport. With these parents bribing college admissions, they have taken away opportunities from other teens who actually deserve to be accepted into that college. From now on, will colleges choose to do their admissions process different after this scandal?
On Mar. 12, William Singer, a college admissions consultant, was indicted and pleaded guilty to four charges in federal court in Boston. He was charged with racketeering, money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice. Singer is the mastermind behind the entire college admission scandal. In court, Singer described how he bribed SAT and ACT test administrators, and they would correct wrongly answered questions on the students exams. Singer also bribed college coaches to certify that certain students would be recruited onto their schools sports teams. He also helped Loughlin’s daughters, Olivia and Isabella, receive admission to USC.
Loughlin met Singer through a friend of hers who had also worked with him, and she allegedly went along with Singer’s plan “because he explained this was the only way to get into USC” a source told People Magazine. Singer had Olivia and Isabella pose on rowing machines depicting them as crew athletes.
Loughlin and Giannulli are facing up to a 20 year jail sentence. In court, they had a chance to make a plea deal but they rejected it. A source told People that they didn’t take the deal because “they weren’t ready to accept [a plea with jail time attached]. They’re really not seeing how serious this is.”
As for Loughlin’s daughters 19 year old Olivia and 20 year old Isabella, neither can withdraw from USC. In a statement that USC made about the college admissions issue, they stated that “USC has placed holds on the accounts of students who may be associated with the alleged admissions scheme; this prevents the students from registering for classes (until they have agreed to participate in the review of their case), withdrawing from the university, or acquiring transcripts while their cases are under review.” But Olivia and Bella have stayed quiet amid the allegations and charges against their parents.
USC is not the only college that is under investigation for allegations about the admission fraud; The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has also been linked to the scandal. UCLA’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo has been accused of accepting $200,000 in bribes. Ale Andres, a student from UCLA, told media company KTLA that “It’s just absolutely ridiculous how people with money think that they can cheat their way into a school.”
Todd Clauer, the Upper School Principal and College Guidance Advisor at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy has many thoughts about this scandal. Clauer claimed that he was not surprised when this scandal broke out but he “was appalled by the notion of wealthy families manipulating the system.”
Clauer’s advice to people wanting to apply to USC is the same for anyone else. Which is to “do your best, be a person of character, strive for your own passions, give back to the school and community, and put the time in to carefully researching all colleges and post-high school programs and then into the application process.”
Regarding students who intend on applying to USC during the fall of 2019, USC will be taking new measures so a scandal like this will not happen again. They announced that they will “take all necessary steps to safeguard the integrity of our admissions process and to ensure we conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with our values.” Hopefully the people involved in this scandal will acknowledge and learn from their mistakes, and a scandal like this will never happen again.
