Hey 3.5 readers.
BQB here.
I have to say that the college admissions scandal, in which rich, wealthy and even famous people including actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman, got nabbed cheating to help their kids get into top colleges surprised me.
3.5 READERS: Really, BQB? The rich and powerful circumventing rules to give their kids a better shot at life than the average folk?
I detect sarcasm, 3.5 readers, but no, really, it does surprise me.
See, I think we all realized that there was all manner of semi-legit yet quasi-shady things going on in college admissions. Rich person donates money to add a new wing to a college building, supposedly because that rich person really cares about that college and nothing more and oh, what a coincidence, that rich person’s kid was just admitted at the same time.
Either that or the rich and or powerful have connections and contacts or the school just sees a kid with a famous name and figures that kid is going places so let’s admit him or her and get our school’s name attached and so on.
On top of that, I just figured that rich and/or famous people have the time and/or money to coach their kids on everything they need to do to get into a top college. Hire them personal tutors. Get them into the best private high schools. Get them all sorts of fancy opportunities.
What I’m saying is with all the legal ways that the rich and powerful can use to bilk the system, I’m surprised some felt they had to risk out and out cheating – i.e. faking credentials (faking that your kid was an athlete when they weren’t) or cheating on the SATS was something that rich people felt that they had to do.
I guess I just assumed college admissions officers were as star struck as the rest of us. “What? This applicant is the kid of the woman who played Aunt Becky on Full House! Let her in!”
Hell, in a way it makes me feel better about not getting into an elite college. If Aunt Becky has to gild the lilly to get her kid into a big name school then I probably never had a chance, what with my Uncle Hardass demanding that I work in the salt mines while I was trying to study for the SATs.
Weird. I had straight A’s in my high school but my SATS were nothing to write home about. I think my local public education system may have failed me, but that’s another rant for another time.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to pull yourself up from nothing, but sometimes I also do think that half of your life is decided for you before you’re even born – i.e. where you will grow up, who your parents are, how much help can and/or will they give you, what do you look like, and so on. I suppose that’s another rant for another time.
Discuss, 3.5 readers, and don’t cheat and have someone else write your comment for you.
Bookshelf Battle 