After Admissions Scandal, Harvard Announces Only Rich Children Can Attend

Mar 14, 2019

A college admissions scam is shaking America.  It revolves around William Singer, the founder of the Key, which helped privileged children cheat on their college entrance exams by bribing exam officials, and also by bribing coaches of prospective student athletes.

Among the high-profile individuals caught up in the controversy are TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

The abuse of wealth and privilege has outraged America, which still likes to dream that if you work hard enough you too can be a millionaire, no matter your class, creed, or color.

But the real puzzle is why bribe at all?  The children of the superrich and privileged have long depended on “legacy admissions” to get them into their Ivy-league college of choice.  You just apply to the same elite school that Mom or Dad went to, and you’ll get right in, especially if More or Dad gives a nice little donation during the admissions process to the university’s endowment fund.

That’s how you attend an Ivy league school.  You don’t bribe random test officials and coaches.  You bribe the school itself, which is legal.

In the wake of this ugly scandal, Ivy league schools are adopting new policies.  Harvard announced that “effective immediately” admissions shall only be open to “students with a building named after them.”  And Yale has stopped its diversity initiative, stating that “Affirmative Action is a form of reverse privilege - and we just want the old fashioned kind of privilege again.”

Perhaps most dramatically of all, Brown University announced a return to its pre-1891 policy by refusing entrance to all women.