On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, the media announced an admissions scandal charging 33 parents (including two actresses), college athletic coaches, and an independent college counselor of fraud and bribery in the college application process. Coaches accepted payoffs to recruit non-athletes to their highly selective colleges, testing administrators were paid off to give students answers and change test scores, and much more. Millions of dollars were paid to this independent college counselor by parents to fabricate admissions and athletic criteria, so their students could get into big name schools.

If you are not familiar with this scandal, check out this article for details –https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/what-we-know-college-admissions-cheating-scandal/index.html

The independent college consultant at the helm of the scandal used the college athletic recruitment process as the key to getting students into highly selective Division 1 universities around the United States. Yes, athletes at the most competitive level often go through a different admissions process when they are supported and recruited by coaches. This is not the case for Division 3 but you typically see for Division 1 and 2. Coaches work with the admissions office to support their recruits to get in. However, athletes do have to be academically competitive in order to be admitted into highly selective schools. As a result, the counselor who conducted fraud had to make sure the student was an admissible applicant. Forging academic documents was the piece that helped these lower achieving non-athletes get into highly selective schools.

The unfortunate part about this scandal is that applicants that played by the rules may have been impacted. There is controversy about the admissions process not having a level playing field especially when students pay for test prep support, work with an independent college counselor, have an influential connection at a college, donate money to a college, or receive college essay support. Yes, in many ways, students may be receiving an advantage, but they are playing by the rules and maintaining their integrity in the application process. As an independent college counselor myself and former college admissions counselor and high school college counselor, I have worked on all sides of the desk with students from all over the world and of every socioeconomic and ethnic background, what I have learned is that high school students from all walks of life often benefit from college admissions guidance to help them decrease their anxiety, to put their best foot forward, and be fully aware of the process and what they need to be doing and thinking about.

My main message here is being honest and selecting the best-fit schools for you is most important. I can see college admissions offices scrutinizing applications in more detail to make sure that students are being honest and using their own voices. Being authentic to who you are will serve you well in the admissions process and in life. Dishonesty in the admissions process comes into play when students are not writing their own essays, parents or others have too heavy of a hand in their applications, and when students misrepresent their academic and extracurricular background. Aiming for the best-fit schools that match who you are both in terms of admissions-selectivity, academically, and socially is the best college admissions goal to have rather than trying to change yourself to match a school based on name or not being a good fit.