‘Operation Varsity Blues’ and the world of US college admissions

Operation Varsity Blues was the single largest college admissions scandal to face the United States, with over 40 people indicted in a scheme that involved students gaining entrance to undergraduate programs at elite schools. William Rick Singer, the man who orchestrated the scheme, used the conceptual ‘side door’ to get students into the university without the qualifying grades or admissions documents. Singer is estimated to have accumulated more than USD $25 million from parents of college applicants between 2011 and February 2019.

When the scandal reached news headlines in 2019, a public outcry from students and university officials claimed the scheme was causing real damage to the integrity of the university admissions process, seen as antithetical to a system of meritocracy in who got selected.

Universities such as Yale, Stanford, and UCLA were also recipients of the scheme, becoming involved in a broader conversation surrounding the lasting consequences of the scandal for their student community

Among those prosecuted were the actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, both of whom tried to get their daughters coveted spots at elite universities in the United States. Five years later, much of the heat around the scandal has died, however, the legacy it has borne has not. In a statement made this year, the University of Southern California (USC) stated it was “shocked and deeply disappointed to learn that some USC students had been falsely presented to USC Admissions as athletic recruits.”

Universities such as Yale, Stanford, and UCLA were also recipients of the scheme, becoming involved in a broader conversation surrounding the lasting consequences of the scandal for their student community. To further complicate matters, several elite universities continue to practice ‘legacy admissions’ which also serves to undermine the meritocracy of the American college admissions system.

Emilio Castilla, a professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, conducted a research study focused on data from a single unnamed institution over 16 years to determine why some schools still prefer legacy applicants. She claimed to have found “strong evidence that the college we studied benefits economically from admitting legacies”.

In the vast majority of cases, legacy applicants are likely to come from disproportionately wealthy families. A study conducted by Professor John N. Friedman of Brown University and the economists Raj Chetty and David J. Deming of Harvard University found that in a group of 12 elite schools, students with a legacy parent had a 26% higher chance of being admitted than other applicants. The universities in the study included all eight Ivy Leagues as well as Stanford, M.I.T, University of Chicago, and Duke.

The trend was replicated across all the universities apart from M.I.T. Legacies are seen as a controversial subject, and many students have argued that it represents a lack of fairness and justice in outcomes. Kevin Baffour, a senior journalism major at the University of Connecticut who graduates in Spring stated that “[p]arents should not have the amount of say that they currently do in the admissions process. It should really be the child’s decision.” Baffour followed this  up by stating that it undermines a “system of fairness and merit in the college selection process.”

The movement for private universities to become more equitable in their processes has been growing in recent years. Michael Hurwitz, Executive Director of Research at the college board in Connecticut, stated: “When you’re picking a class out of a group of 10 times more qualified students than you can possibly admit, then a modest thumb on the scale translates into a fairly large statistical advantage.” As a result, universities often skew in favour of white applicants with a level of familial wealth.

Rick Singer’s Operation Varsity Blues made plain pre-existing flaws within the American college system. Singer’s ability to recruit individuals within the admissions system to create ‘side doors’ into universities raises questions of whether meritocracy is truly the only motive in decision-making at universities

Achieving balance and selecting the most qualified students is a difficult challenge for any college, making it less likely to obtain a ‘fair’ result. Benjamin Ebanks, a senior computer science major at M.I.T., stated: “[P]romoting a system of fairness should be at the centre of any university’s goals.” He also added that “this is something that is reflected in M.I.T’s admissions process.”

There looks to be a great shift in the way college admissions are carried out in the next few years. Less impetus on standardised testing such as the SAT and ACT exams for Ivy Leagues such as Yale, as well as the removal of a numeric value on personal statements, could create greater variety in the kinds of candidates who achieve successful results when applying to top colleges.

Rick Singer’s Operation Varsity Blues made plain pre-existing flaws within the American college system. Singer’s ability to recruit individuals within the admissions system to create ‘side doors’ into universities raises questions of whether meritocracy is truly the only motive in decision-making at universities. The fees at private universities in the U.S. – typically around $60,000-$80,000 per year without a scholarship or bursary – already skews in favour of students from wealthy backgrounds. One may argue that all Singer had to do to enact Varsity Blues was reinforce pre-existing biases and fissures that elite colleges had not addressed to create guaranteed entry for the parents of prospective students.

On October 22 of this year, District Attorney Andrew Lelling stated new cases were “the result of ongoing investigation in the nationwide college admissions case.” Lelling also stated that the efforts within the college admissions scandal reflected “cheating, bribery, and fraud present in the college admissions system.” The prevalence of these cases create a precedent that wealth and social capital can be mobilised to alter election outcomes within the country. This undermines a system of fairness that was originally fundamental to the US college system.

American universities must continue to amend and review their admissions systems in order to make it more equitable. In light of Singer’s Operation Varsity Blues, several universities have already taken steps to amend their systems. Upholding meritocracy in college admissions is an ongoing challenge and, with broader challenges to college funding increasing in the past decade, it is unlikely to be a issue that will soon abate.