Schools signed off on bribery scandal
Admissions offices must be held accountable
Schools and their admissions officials are not the target of the scandal embroiling testing proctors, SAT/ACT tutors, college athletic coaches and parents, but they are far from victims. No matter how much influence the indicted individuals had, none of them signed off on admissions decisions.
Let’s be clear: It is the responsibility of the admissions office to verify applicants, their applications and their viability to succeed at the institution.
When I worked in the Undergraduate Admissions Office at the University of Pennsylvania, we warned studentathletes that even if the college coach assured them of admission, the decision rested with our office. It was up to us — not a coach or any other individual — whether a student was admitted.
It was our job to make sure that all applicants — athletes and nonathletes alike — met the academic standards for admission. In reality, the only students who scraped the bottom of the applicant pool based on grades, curriculum and test scores were the students “tagged” as special applicants: recruited athletes, children of generous donors, or students with connections to the board of trustees. It seems obvious, but there is a reason why these students and their parents sought creative ways for their children to get admitted.
When it comes to evaluating an application, admissions officers are trained to read between the lines and ensure that the student is able to back up the intended major, choice of activities and application as a whole. It’s hard to believe that no one at the targetted colleges picked up on the inconsistencies in the applications at the center of this scandal.
Lori Loughlin’s daughters were allegedly admitted as crew recruits to the University of Southern California. Crew at USC is a Division 1 sport, the highest level of collegiate competition. Knowing how impressive a crew recruit is for a Division 1 program, what was going through the admissions officers’ minds when they reviewed the applications?
How does a YouTube star with millions of followers have time to become an elite rower, which requires a commitment to train for hours each day?
Or consider Felicity Huffman’s daughter’s 400-point increase from the PSAT to the SAT. While PSAT scores are not reported to colleges, Huffman’s daughter’s very strong SAT score would need to be corroborated by other pieces of her application. The rigor of her curriculum, grades, essays and her recommendation letters would need to suggest that she is the type of student that would get the score she received.
If not, admissions officers go down a dark hole of suspicion. Does the student get extra time for a medical condition? Is the student not working up to her potential? Why aren’t teachers going to bat for her in the recommendation letters? All these questions would leave a regular applicant without connections no chance of admission.
Do some students get special treatment in the admissions process? Yes, at virtually every college in the country. But this doesn’t apply to students who have no connections at elite colleges. One B in an academic class senior year. One typo in an essay. One teacher recommendation that lists the student as “excellent” but not “outstanding.” This is enough for kids not to get admitted, unless they know someone.
Did someone turn a blind eye in admissions, or did they truly miss these glaring fabrications application after application, year after year? Either way, admissions offices should be held to the same standard as everyone else.
We know that elite colleges employ holistic admissions, which allow them to have different standards for different students. This is a way to create racial, geographic and socioeconomic diversity. But colleges value the “diversity” of the well-connected even more.
In the end, admissions offices must stand by their decisions. Unfortunately, as this “side door” to elite admissions closes, others will open. Without major changes, this flawed system will continue to be gamed by the privileged to the detriment of the unconnected. Sara Harberson, a private college admissions counselor, was the associate dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania and the dean of admissions at Franklin & Marshall College.