Admissions Shenanigans

So the news was dominated yesterday with tales of rich people who paid tons or money to a corrupt college consultant who bribed coaches and hired people to defraud the SAT and ACT in order to get their rich (but not REALLY rich) and not too smart kids into college.

It was quite a scheme. As the mastermind said, he told his clients there are three ways to get into college: the front door (your kid is actually qualified), the back door (you make at least a $1M donation to the school) or the side door (his way -- you pay less than $1M to game the system).

I'm proud to say my Ds got into the absurdly competitive UF via the front door. And, with Bright Futures, the program designed to keep top students from leaving the state, and the PrePaid Plan I had bought when they were in high school, college was a major bargain for us. Some years, the Ds actually got refunds from the two plans while attending -- it paid for their sorority dues and off campus rent.

We never fell into the whole prestigious college game. I'm too much of an empiricist:  many of my friends are wildly successful in their careers, and attended UM or UF, or even, to pardon the expression, FSU. Those I know who attended Ivy League colleges didn't seem to fare much better at all.

We told the Ds, they had a choice. If they went to a private or out of state college, we'd pay, but they'd live like students. If they went to UF, we'd put the money into investment accounts, and they'd live "better than students." They both chose door number one, and are happy they did: D1 and Joey easily put a substantial down payment of their house using those funds.

I spoke to our old partner Brian the other day. He used to practice law with us, but his wife was unhappy in Miami. She was very status conscious, and was tired of being among the poorest members of Temple Judea -- she figured in Orlando, where they moved, they'd be bigger shots.  So they indeed moved, but are now separated. Brian misses us.  It's a lesson about always acting to make your wife happy -- sometimes it turns out to be the wrong life move.

But on the positive side: Brian's oldest, who the Ds used to babysit for, is now a high school senior. He got accepted to Emory, along with UF, and UM with a half tuition scholarship. Emory offered to scholarship.

It would cost Brian $70K of after tax dollars to send his oldest to Atlanta. UF would be very cheap, and UM, with the scholarship, would be in the $30s...

He has two sons to put through college after the oldest. It looks like the young man will be wearing orange in the Fall -- either with blue, or with green.

But back to the scandal...I hope each kid who was fraudulently admitted is kicked out of the college. It's the only way that the colleges can keep credibility. Let the rich kids go to Community College -- give them a dose of reality.

Also, the colleges should be forced to return any of the donations they received -- so the fraud parents will know their big bucks went to the US DOJ to help fight crime.

Probably none of the parents will do actual prison time, and that's fine. Just being financially spanked and suffering the horror of having their kids pay by getting booted from school is enough, in my opinion.

Wifey and I did plenty of dumb stuff as parents. Fortunately, trying to game the system, or paying too much for college wasn't in that column.