On March 12, breaking news alerts buzzed with revelations that 50 parents, standardized test administrators and college officials from around the U.S. were charged with taking part in a massive college admissions scandal organized by William Rick Singer, CEO of a college admissions prep company called The Key.
No one in Saratoga was caught up in the scandal, but a few residents in Palo Alto and Menlo Park were involved, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post.
Dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, the case is the largest college cheating scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, and it naturally evoked strong reactions in a college-obsessed school like SHS.
Guidance counselor Eileen Allen said she wasn’t shocked by the scandal.
“The pressure to get into these brand name schools is enormous, and I can see how wealthy parents who were trying to buy an advantage would have sought out a way to have an advantage or guarantee of admission,” she said.
Physics teacher Kirk Davis said that his initial reaction to the scandal was “disappointed but not surprised” because he recognizes how easy it is to cheat on standardized tests.
“[My wife and I] have a child who had learning disabilities and was allowed extended time, and it was proctored by someone from the [child’s] school but we didn't think twice about it,” Davis said. “When you get extended time on these things you have to be proctored separately. It could have been proctored by anybody.”
Allen also sees how many parents could find ways to cheat or bribe coaches and test proctors to help their students get into better universities.
“If you think about affluent communities and the lengths that parents and students go to in order to gain admission to prestigious universities just within the normal bounds of accepted practice, you can see how a scheme like this could develop if you have someone who has questionable ethics,” Allen said.
English teacher Amy Keys noted how the people implicated in the scandal often believe that they are justified in gaming the system because many others also spend money on helping their children with college admissions through tutors and counseling. However, she said that this behavior and mindset deserves to be condemned.
“I was dismayed at the flagrant flaunting of any kind of rules of propriety and decorum,” Keys said. “The fact that it was so blatantly buy-and-sell was absurd and really disgusting.”
Allen also believes that the problem is larger than a few dozen parents paying their children’s way into universities.
“I think there is a larger philosophical question concerning the gap between the rich and the poor and how this is perpetuated and exacerbated through the college admissions process and educational access in general,” Allen said.
While most students in the Silicon Valley do not, as a rule, bribe their way into college, they still have the economic opportunity to take advantage of services that boost students’ chances in college admissions, according to The Atlantic. These services include standardized test preparation classes, outside tutoring and college counseling, which in the Bay Area, can be up to $400 an hour.
Keys sees the need for affirmative action programs, which strives to boost acceptance rates for some minorities who are statistically less economically privileged; she said that affirmative action solves a few issues regarding the fairness of college admissions.
She said that the college admissions process has already been inherently unfair for a long time for those with fewer privileges.
However, Keys said that the emphasis on college admissions at Saratoga High comes from a more justified source.
“The difference with Saratoga High is I see students who are working incredibly hard,” Keys said. “Yes, they have a lot of advantages because they’re in a good school district, their parents tend to be highly educated and their parents tend to be focused on their success in ways that are legitimate, so that's different and I think the scandal should be dismaying to students at the school for that reason.”
Though junior Je-Woo Im, a competitive rower and potential college recruit, felt disappointed upon hearing about the scandal, he said that he was not surprised because he is familiar with the college recruitment process and is aware of how easy it might be to take advantage of a corrupt person.
He said the scandal represents “how things work in real life,” even if the steps taken aren’t necessarily ethical.
Nonetheless, Davis believes students and parents, including those at Saratoga High, need to recognize that there is more to life than which college the get into.
“Try to go to the best college possible but don’t let your admissions define you,” he said.
