Pomp and Circumstance

By KAROL QUERIDO ‘22

Now that the seniors have returned from Punta Cana, the Bahamas, or whatever island resort they spent two weeks frolicking on, only three more weeks stand between them and a month-long senior project. The seniors have worked really hard this year, balancing school work, social life, and dreaded college applications. Exciting college news is always encouraging to hear, but I can’t say the same about the Wall of Shame in Warren Hall. Seeing college rejection letters written to some of the smartest, most dedicated students I know is depressing, but not surprising.

Over spring break, news broke out about the largest college admissions cheating scandal in history, in which the Full House actress, Lori Loughlin, and 50 other people were charged with making “charitable donations” to colleges and sports team coaches in order to get their child into the school. Some of these colleges included the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Stanford, Yale, UCLA and USC. The cheating occured in three different ways: some parents hired photographers to make it seem like their kids play a certain competitive sport in order to grant them athletic admissions, even though they have never been involved in that sport before. Secondly, parents hired other people to take their kids’ SAT/ACT test or to change their scores before sending them to colleges. William Rick Singer, founder of the profitable college prep business Edge College & Career Network (also known as "The Key") was allegedly the mastermind behind the third bribery method. The parents made payments to Mr. Singer’s company that were disguised as donations and would be funneled through the organization to the universities, allowing the parents to claim tax deductions. Many parents paid up to 6.5 million dollars to guarantee the admission of their child into a prestigious school.

What does this say about the society we live in? Money dictates everything. But, don’t we kinda already know that? The numbers aren’t what shocked me; the response from my community did. Coming to a place like Milton taught me what money could do—the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is no doubt that legacy admissions are a big part of Milton, and legacy almost always ties back to wealth. Even my mother was upset by the news (which is rare for a middle-aged African immigrant, by the way). I learned that my mother still had a sense of virtue and integrity towards America, especially of education, and since I am the curator of her esteemed “American dream,” she was disheartened to see my compliant attitude towards the news.

I’m not going to go as far as to say that Milton parents bribe the school for their kids to get in, but it’s not like money doesn’t have anything to with admissions; after all, we are a private school with an exorbitant tuition that only some can afford. And, like all good scandals, the media turned this one into a race issue. After news broke out about the scandals, Instagram and Twitter users were quick to point out that almost everybody involved in this scandal was a rich, white parent. I do not want to discredit this theory, but I do want to point out its flaws. Social media users used Malia Obama as an example of “black excellence,” claiming that she got into Harvard on her own and did not need her parents to bribe her in. I found it naive that people actually think that the last name Obama had nothing to do with Malia’s acceptance to Harvard. I know that it can be hard for many minority groups to take ownership of their hard work because of policies such as affirmative action, which lead people to believe that certain people are accepted only because of a quota that needs to be met. However, we need to realize that we live in a society where wealth always has the upper hand, and sometimes it falls into the wrong ones.