This past week, the largest admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice unfolded.

This scandal exposed many wealthy families who tried to bribe officials, maniupulate grades and cheat thed their children into getting into universities. On top of bribing, there was cheating and manipulation of grades involved.

BloomU sophomore and Medical Imaging major Bell Medica says, “It’s not surprising because rich people think they can do whatever they want”.
According to CNN, 50 people are being charged for having a part in this scandal including hollywood stars, CEOS, college coaches and standardized test administrators. Included in the scandal, is “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, who played the character Becky. According to Forbes, Loughlin and her husband “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team”.

As more of this scandal unraveled, the ring leader was revealed. William Rick Singer, “allegedly told prospective clients he created a “side door” for wealthy families to get their children into top US colleges”, as first reported in CNN.

With the help of his company, The Key, Singer helped wealthy students cheat on the ACTs and SATs to score higher. Singer also created fake profiles for student athletes to get them on sports teams at prestigious universities including Yale, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Georgetown. Singer’s scheme was to get in contact with college coaches firstin order to “fast track students for admission using the designated recruiting slots,” according to CNN, going to lengths as far as editing students faces onto pictures of real student athletes.

BloomU junior and Exercise Science major Samantha Brady comments, “It doesn’t surprise me at all but it sucks because they took away athletic scholarships from people who actually deserve it.”

This past week, his hearing was held at a Boston federal court. He plead guilty to four charges and admitted to everything. He is being charged for racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, tax conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He could spend the rest of his life in jail. It is still up in the air whether the students involved will be charged, but one university has already announced they are denying anyone connected to this scam.

Parents would pay Singer as much as $25 million to get their students into colleges, said Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts. Singer told parents to donate it toward a fake charity; this way, the parents could deduct it from their income taxes.