So You Want to Buy Your Kid Into College

摘要

For most of the modern era, there have been two ways to get your offspring into a prestigious U.S. university: hope they're the real deal with legitimate academic chops-aka the front door-or make a major donation to the university-aka the back door. Either way, there were no guarantees. Then, on March 12, we learned about a third way: the side door, described by college counselor and cooperating witness Rick Singer in a 204-page federal indictment charging dozens of people in an elaborate scheme to falsify applications and pay off college gatekeepers. There were any number of ways to take the side door: getting your kid more time on standardized tests by faking a learning disability; hiring someone to take the tests for them; lying about your kid's athletic abilities; and bribing coaches to look the other way. The side door could be expensive, though not usually as expensive as the back door. But most important, Singer explained, it was foolproof. Now the side door is all but closed. What's a parent to do?