Company + Money = Cheating

Living where I do, I'm usually behind on the news so when a friend sent me a link to a scandal that happened a few days ago, I was both shocked and not really shocked.

I am talking about the story in which people paid a company to "help" student gain entry into an elite college either through getting their children on a 504 plan so they could get more time on the ACT or SAT.

Or the company could arrange for a test administrator to adjust some answers so the student scored much higher than they normally would.  Or they got the student into college as an "athlete" even thought they were not.

I appreciate the fact the government is prosecuting as many of the core group as they can.  By core group, I'm talking about the testing officials who changed answers, the college athletic directors who allow students in via their sport, the directors who arranged it all and people who used the service.

My father once told me that if you want a degree from an elite college, there are ways to do it than by attending all four years there.  He said you can look at the catalogue from say Harvard,  make sure you take all the correct courses and then transfer in for your senior year.  The cost is much less, it's easier to get admitted by transferring in, and the diploma shows Harvard.  It doesn't say you only attended there one year.

I don't understand the drive of the parents to get their students admitted to an elite college for all four years.  Sometimes, it's much better for a student to attend a community college to strengthen their skills before transferring in.  The end result is the same and on future job applications, they do not ask if you went to the school for all four years.   They only care that you graduated and the name of the college.

Of course the idea of an elite college really depends on what you plan to major in.  If you are going into Engineering or other type of scientific discipline, you might want to at a school of mines in Colorado, New Mexico, or perhaps MIT or Rochester Institute of Technology. 

I'm sorry the parents felt driven to do this.  I wonder how it will effect the child in the future. Could it possibly throw a negative light on them?  I don't know but it seems to me that once this is but to rest, another one will pop up in a few years and we'll gasp at this scandal. 

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.