As someone who came from pretty humble beginnings to be able to play in the incredible sandbox of one of these incredible American institutions, it’s really upsetting to see them so easily corrupted.
6 Likes
Agreed, fuck-em
1 Like
2 Likes
Is Yale giving the money back ?
Motherfuckers the lot of them.
Yale didn’t get the money. That’s why they’re so upset.
12 Likes
Consulting fee.
7 Likes
My thought process exactly.
For 1.2M, I’m sure there’s all sorts of “official” (read as “legal”) ways to ensure your kid gets in. Perhaps an endowment for a program, donated funds towards a new building etc…
These particular rich folks’ problem is that they spent their money poorly with a broker rather than just going to the school directly. (and, man, I wish that was a F-ing sarcastic statement rather than an honest analysis of the situation…)
4 Likes
I’m confused, hasn’t “pay to get in” always been the whole point of Yale?
2 Likes
Suffering is when someone ends up in prison for bribery and fraud.
Ugh. every story of corruption in the news from Trump shenanigans to these admissions stories just keeps bringing into starker and starker relief that all our systems are just interwoven webs of trust, and that the materials that web was built from were fucking shoddy as fuck.
4 Likes
Parent trying to give the best to their children
+
every advantage possible growing up
They’ll get over it
3 Likes
Of all the things rich people can do to get ahead, donating to colleges at least benefits valid humans (including some scholarship students). But bribes to individuals are truly indefensible. So this isn’t completely hypocritical.
Who’s letting the soccer coach influence admissions at all? Ridiculous, the full stack.
2 Likes
Wouldn’t it be interesting if prospective employers started turning down Yale or Harvard grads in favor of people who went to community college, reasoning that the latter were more likely to have put work into their studies?
As part of the scandal, former Yale women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith, was charged with accepting bribes in exchange for designating two applicants as soccer recruits to get them admitted.
I suppose there must be minimal oversight when it comes to these things, and that once the coach has a say on whether a person gets admitted as a soccer recruit or whatever, no one bothers to check in on whether the person actually proceeds to play soccer.
1 Like
It’s ridiculous that anyone would value a Yale degree that much – not just in terms of money, but in terms of risk.
There had never been a scandal like this. Over a decade, the fixer had had a track record of successfully getting almost a hundred high school students in; he was almost certainly referred to the current parents through word-of-mouth by previous customers. The reward was immense. And the apparently low risk seemed acceptable to the amoral parents.
phew! we wouldn’t want to fill yale up with entitled rich jerks.
2 Likes
When they aren’t being bribed, the coaches will be very careful about who they recommend for admission, because they only get a few recruit spots each year and don’t want to waste them on kids who won’t actually help the team perform better.
But once a kid has been admitted, there’s no real requirement for him to actually join the team. I know at least a few people who I’m pretty sure were recruited athletes for Ivy League teams, but didn’t join the team (or quit not longer after joining). Some got hurt, some just couldn’t balance the team practice schedule with academic demands, and others just didn’t want to do sports any more.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a new state of affairs in academia, especially for elite institutions like Yale, etc. It’s always been about letting the “right” people in and keeping the “wrong” people out… they just have to be more subtle about it now and include enough of the “wrong” people to look good to donors. The few people who get in through actual hard work and merit (like yourself, I’m sure) and fewer and farther between. It sucks, because working class people and people of color of all classes and any gender or sexual orientation or identity could transform how our society works if they had larger representation in elite institutions that would get them more elite jobs…
2 Likes
