4 ms·

I truly do not understand the shock and outrage. Jokes about the wealthy/elite getting their offspring admitted to schools in exchange for "buying buildings" o

I truly do not understand the shock and outrage. Jokes about the wealthy/elite getting their offspring admitted to schools in exchange for "buying buildings" or making considerable donations to school endowments have been around far longer than me, and I'm 50. At what rate do the offspring of apex elite attend top tier schools? Does that all work on merit? Did Chelsea Clinton truly deserve her acceptance to Stanford when her father was President? I assume so.... Or was it a much better executed version of Libyan dictator Qaddafi's son and the London School of Economics scandal? To me it seems these things have always happened. The only surprise, I think, is when people think they are amongst the elite to whom most rules don't apply, but they're really just part of the super affluent and risk being made examples of.

pcen 7y ago
The whole scandal only happened because these families paid the wrong person. Instead of paying the doorman, they paid for a disguise to sneak into the backdoor.
inflatableDodo 7y ago
I think you understand the outrage perfectly. I think you may be overestimating the shock.
- chriselles 7y ago
  Good point!
- bayareanative 7y ago
  Maybe there's a conflation of the "shock?" There's the level of shock implied by the media and then there's the level of shock experienced by viewers of said media.
mc32 7y ago
One path is official and in the open. The other is corrupt and helps no one but those in on the bribery.
mason55 7y ago
Think of it like this. The school has X places reserved for people to pay their way in. In exchange for those places, the university and student body get a bunch of benefits for letting in someone who is not otherwise qualified. Think of this as a theft from the university and student body by the person accepting the money. The quality of the student body goes down but the university doesn’t get the benefit they’re supposed to.

pcen 7y ago

The whole scandal only happened because these families paid the wrong person. Instead of paying the doorman, they paid for a disguise to sneak into the backdoor.

inflatableDodo 7y ago

I think you understand the outrage perfectly. I think you may be overestimating the shock.

chriselles 7y ago
Good point!
bayareanative 7y ago
Maybe there's a conflation of the "shock?" There's the level of shock implied by the media and then there's the level of shock experienced by viewers of said media.

mc32 7y ago

One path is official and in the open. The other is corrupt and helps no one but those in on the bribery.

mason55 7y ago

Think of it like this. The school has X places reserved for people to pay their way in. In exchange for those places, the university and student body get a bunch of benefits for letting in someone who is not otherwise qualified. Think of this as a theft from the university and student body by the person accepting the money. The quality of the student body goes down but the university doesn’t get the benefit they’re supposed to.