Lying, cheating and bribing: how some wealthy parents got their kids into top universities

What does it take to get into an elite private university in the United States?

Today's expression: Raise eyebrows
Explore more: Lesson #140
March 25, 2019:

The world of elite university admissions was rocked when American federal prosecutors charged over 50 people involved in an illegal cheating and bribery scheme to help undeserving kids get into top schools. Over 33 parents"”including Hollywood actresses, business executives, and prominent doctors"”were charged with paying bribes, cheating on tests, and lying in applications, all in an effort to get their kids into top schools. Plus, learn the English expression, "to raise eyebrows."

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What does it take to get into an elite private university in the United States? Now we know: just a quarter-million dollars and some good Photoshop skills

A massive scandal burst into the open last week, when federal prosecutors in Boston charged 33 parents with bribing and cheating to get their kids into some of America’s best universities. Low test scores? No problem: just have an expert correct the wrong answers. Kid not exactly a star athlete? Nothing some generic pictures and Photoshop can’t fix. And if after all of that, you want some extra peace of mind, just pay a huge bribe.

Hey everyone, I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, and this is Plain English, the best podcast for learning English. Today’s episode is long—I think they’re getting longer. What do you think? I haven’t looked, but I get the feeling that they’re creeping well into the mid-20s. 22 minutes, 23 minutes. I originally thought they would be 15 minutes, but I guess I just have too much to say.

Today is episode 140, so you can find the transcript online at PlainEnglish.com/140. Don’t forget to join our email community at PlainEnglish.com/mail , where you will get extra resources along with every episode. And of course, reach out on WhatsApp if you want to say hi, introduce yourself. The number is +1 312 967 8757 . It has to be WhatsApp—that’s the only way I get messages on there. But don’t be shy about saying hello, maybe suggesting an episode topic. +1 312 967 8757 .


Bribery scandal at elite universities

The world of elite university admissions has turned into an arms race. Stressed-out high schoolers go from activity to activity, learning to play instruments, speaking Mandarin, competing in sports, building houses for the poor, and cramming for standardized tests (not to mention, you know, going to school). It’s all in an effort to win one of the very limited, highly-coveted spots in America’s elite universities, like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Yet even students with the best grades, the best scores, the best activities, and the best application essays often get rejected. If you want the best for your kid, what can you do?

The answer, for dozens of wealthy families, was to cheat. Federal prosecutors in Boston indicted almost 50 people for participating in a massive scam to get undeserving kids into elite universities. What parents were involved? People who should know better. Two Hollywood actresses, Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman. Executives at one of the world’s biggest investment funds, PIMCO. The chairman of a global law firm. Big Silicon Valley investors—an early investor in Uber and Airbnb. People who have wealth and success and connections; and still, they felt the need to cheat. In addition to the cheating parents, prosecutors charged university sports coaches, administrators, and teachers.

Here’s how it worked. A guy named Rick Singer started a business called Edge College & Career Network, which purported to help students apply to elite colleges. He also created a fake charity. Wealthy parents would make a big donation to the fake charity in exchange for Singer’s illicit services. The cheating concentrated on two ways to cheat: fake test scores, and fake athletic prowess.

Universities admit a lot of students who are good athletes, even if their academic credentials are not quite up to snuff. Coaches of the sports teams often make recommendations about who to admit, based on the applicants’ athletic talent.

This created the opening that Singer needed. He would work with parents to invent a lie about the students’ athletic abilities. The lie would not have to convince the coach; the coaches would know who the good athletes are. Instead, Singer would pay a bribe to the coach, and the invented lie would only have to convince the admissions office. Then, when the students got to school, they would either fake an injury or just decide not to participate in the sport after all.

One parent paid $400,000 to the Yale women’s soccer coach to accept his daughter on the team; the kid didn’t even play soccer. One father Photoshopped his son’s face onto a picture of a water-polo player. The kid didn’t even know how to play water polo, and his school didn’t even offer the sport as an activity. Often, the kids were kept in the dark—meaning, the parents didn’t tell their kids that they were cheating the system. There was one close call: an admissions officer asked a new student about his skills running track. The kid responded that he wasn’t a runner. That probably raised some eyebrows, but apparently not enough to uncover the scam at the time.

Many of you are studying for the TOEFL and IELTS exams; students in the US have to take two tests, the SAT and the ACT. They’re standardized, multiple-choice tests that are administered in testing centers. There is a strict time limit. But if you have a learning disability, you can often take the test in a special room and have extra time. This was all that Singer needed. His clients all faked learning disabilities and got permission to take the test with extra time, in a special room, away from all the other students. Then, he found a guy who knew the tests so well that he could get any score you like. If you wanted the highest score, he could get that. But if getting the highest score would raise eyebrows, he could get a merely excellent score. Whatever score you want—he was so good, he could get it. He would sit in the special room for test-takers with learning disabilities and correct their work. Or, if that was too much of a hassle, this guy—a 36-year-old man—would just take the test for the student at one of two corrupt testing centers.

There are dozens of phone calls that are transcribed in the indictment. You can read them online. You can read transcripts of calls in which parents—wealthy parents, with all the advantages in the world—scheme with this guy to cheat for their kids. They ask for high test scores—but not too high. They brainstorm about what kind of sports they could say their kids play. They try to make sure they won’t get caught.

How and why did this happen? The world of elite university admissions is out of control, at least in my opinion. Parents go crazy trying to get their kids into the top universities. The universities themselves are not transparent about who they admit. They call it a “holistic” system; it’s really just a big judgment call. Hyper-competitive parents try to get their kids an edge in many legal ways. They hire expensive test-taking tutors. They make big donations to universities, in hopes that the money would count in their child’s favor. They get their kids extra time on those all-important tests—not exactly by faking a disability, but by finding a friendly doctor that would certify a disability. There are all of these ways that people with means can tilt the playing field in their kid’s direction.

And this was the sales pitch. Singer, the mastermind of all the bribery and cheating: he told his clients that the system was rigged. Here is what he told his clients, on tape. Exact quote: “The whole world is scamming the system.” So he offered his clients the chance to just scam it a little worse than the average rich parent does.

This is big news. Big shots—I mean, big shots in business and law and medicine and technology and finance—have quit their jobs, their reputations ruined forever. They are now going to court. The charges are mail fraud and some of these parents could be facing jail time.


For some of these people. You’re so rich, just buy the school a building and get your kid in that way. You don’t even have to cheat! Yikes. The strange thing is, nobody seems to worry about what happens to a kid who gets into a university that’s too hard or too rigorous academically. It just makes me so mad. I wonder what those kids think of their parents now.

And—I should just get to the phrase, but one more point. What is this going to do to the kids who have genuine learning disabilities—the kids who really do need extra time to take exams because they can’t read as quickly or they have to work harder to understand the exam questions? Everyone is going to think their disability is fake and they’re doing it just to cheat. What a mess.

The good thing is, you’re learning English because you really want to learn it, not to get some artificially high score on a test. That’s why I’m learning Spanish, and learning is so much more rewarding when you actually want to do it, don’t you think? If that describes you, you might want to check out MosaLingua. They’re an innovative language-learning company and they’re already helped millions of learners, not just of English but of lots of other languages. They have a huge library of online content, apps, exercises, online courses, all kinds of stuff. You can find them at PlainEnglish.com/learn . If you’re looking to practice in a fun and innovative way, maybe get some practice on the bus, or late at night, then I bet you’ll like the programs at MosaLingua. PlainEnglish.com/learn.

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Expression: Raise eyebrows