Assignment On American College Admission System

Running head: ARTICLE SUMMARY
Article Summary
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1ARTICLE SUMMARY
The American college admission system is not always based on merit. In many cases,
the well-known and in-demand colleges give preference to the students whose parents have
already attended the institution. This is predominant in the ivy-league colleges and for this,
education councilors are charging an enormous amount of money. This scenario was revealed
when the Emmy award-winner actress, Felicity Huffman was indicted for paying $15,000 to
a middleman who was appointed to provide her daughter with a higher score through illegal
means (McMahon 2019). Many parents in America pays inordinate sum of money in order to
get their offspings into good institutions. They pay bribe, cheat and tell many lies related to
their educational career so that they can secure one of the top colleges.
The case revealed that many celebrities as well as, other wealthy people were engaged
in this thoroughfare which included Lori Loughlin, an actor, John Wilson, private equity
investor and Douglas Hodge, the chief executive of Pacific Investment Management,
spanning an area covering Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Hollywood. A total estimated
value of $25 million US dollar has been paid within the span of 2011 to 2018 to William
Singer, an consultant for college admissions. These education consultants create the profiles
of the students of the these parents as lucrative and make them the top recruits for the top
universities.
Due to this practice, children that are working hard and have good grades are lagging
behind. In many cases, the top universities’ preference and bias towards the candidates that
have their parents or grandparents belonged to that school as well as their system of bribery
through donations are forcing the emerging rich to adopt unfair means and take desperate
measures. Parents even went on collect several recommendation letters from well known
personalities or ask admission officers about the procedure at random places. Many
admission consultants also received death threats and experienced stalking by parents whose
children had not been able to get admission in their desired colleges.