By Julia Schwed ‘21, Commentary Editor

The recent college admissions scandal came as a shock to all who have college on their minds – parents, high school students, and teachers alike. In March, US prosecutors charged fifty people with participating in a scheme to get students into some of the top schools in the country, including Yale and Stanford. The people charged include a consultant named William Singer, the leader and developer of the scheme; 33 parents, including famous entertainers and wealthy business executives; and a number of college coaches. All the adults used their extensive wealth in order to cheat the system. Some parents paid Singer to cheat on standardized tests by having someone else take the test for their children, by having a proctor provide test answers, or by having somebody change answers after the tests were taken. Other parents paid Singer to bribe college coaches to pretend the children were elite athletes and use their influence as coaches to get them into schools.

The conduct of everybody involved is reprehensible. Those who we turn to and trust in times where morality is needed violated their ethical commitments to the community. Coaches lied and violated the trust that universities put in them. They also deceived the students they were coaching who trusted that their coaches were trying to put together a winning team, not let in fake athletes to line their own pockets. Test proctors, whom everyone counts on to stop cheating, were also aiding the cheating. The parents showed a complete lack of trust and faith in their own children. All those involved hurt the students who deserve the opportunity to get into a college because of their own merit, not their wallets.

If there’s a silver lining to this scandal, it’s that it debunks the notion that college admissions are all about merit and achievement. Although only fifty people were charged, undoubtedly there is an entire industry built on using money and influence to get high school students into college. As Mikey Marcus ‘21 said, “It comes to show that wherever you go there are always going to be people who unfairly get in, and I feel like it shows the huge influence of social class and economic status on school applications.” Those who complain that affirmative action undermines the merit-based admissions process should recognize that it is not affirmative action that is corrupting the system. Unlike the current scandal, affirmative action is designed to level the playing field for students who might have had disadvantages growing up, not provide an extra advantage to children of celebrities and wealthy people.

Hopefully this scandal can provide all of us with some perspective on college. There is too much focus on getting into the college with the best name at all costs, and college admissions have come to dominate our lives.  Mikey added, “I would say that we have come to associate high level schools with a high level social and economic status and there is an unnecessary sense of being superior because you went to a top 25 school. Because this was done by adults it shows how much pressure is put on their children to maintain this high level economic and social status by going to a top 25 school.” College is not a trophy – it is the next step in our education, and we should have faith that we can make the most of whichever college we end up attending. The takeaway is not that we shouldn’t strive to get into a good college; it is that we should not compromise our morals to do so.