Before you get excited about the headline, I realize you can not dump everyone into one basket by making such a broad statement about America as a whole. Hopefully you were just as disgusted as me when reading today’s news headlines about the elite, wealthy, and actresses spending $25M in bribes to put their sons and/or daughters into Ivy League schools. These are students who would not qualify based on their own merits.
Myself and millions of other college students had to work hard to get into college and did not have rich parents who could ensure admission into Ivy League schools with little to no effort on their part. Now we all know that cheating is not new and it has probably been going on for years across the county, but thankfully someone exposed the cheaters. So far, there have been 33 parents involved in buying their students entrance exams, test scores, answers or just plain bribe hush money as reported by the FBI. I was surprised to learn that many of the students were not involved or had no knowledge of their parent’s plan to cheat or put together creative financial deals.
Since cheating is a nationwide issue, you have to wonder how many students across the nation could not get into college as a result of cheating? A look at the past reveals the most shocking educational cheating that has been going on for some time by the Business Insider and Ranker.
- 2018 – The NCAA stripped the University of Louisville’s men’s basketball team of its 2013 national championship title over a recruiting scandal, where coaches used sex workers to entice recruits and keep players happy at the university.
- 2012 – Harvard cheating scandal involved approximately 125 Harvard University students.
- 2011 – Largest teacher cheating scandal in the country’s history happened in Atlanta with 178 teachers and administrators implicated in cheating on competency tests.
- 2004-2010 – Over 700 Texas schools suspected of cheating and even hundreds more with suspicious test scores.
- 1999-2001 – Thirty-two schools and 52 teachers and administrators implicated in New York City investigation of teacher cheating.
- 1993-2011 – The University of North Carolina helped 3,100 students get good grades with little work for 18 years! Hundreds of classes required little work or had no faculty involvement and many of the students involved were student-athletes.
- 1989-1991 – The University of Miami was placed on probation for forging Pell Grant applications worth approximately $220,000 in funds.
More than 80 percent of college students claimed they have cheated in some way while in school according to a 2017 Cleveland.com survey.
From politicians to business leaders to colleges and students, cheating is rampant in our society.
What can we do? We should demand transparency in the admission selection process of all colleges and universities so that potential students and parents know what to expect. Finally, students who have worked hard deserve an opportunity to attend Ivy League schools despite their social status.
Get The WORD Out! 