As parents, teaching our children morality is one of our most important jobs. When our children are toddlers, we begin to teach them right from wrong. “Be kind; be respectful; share; do not lie; do not cheat; do not steal.” As our children grow older, though, understanding the nuances of what is moral requires careful consideration. Not all situations are clear, and those nuances are often very confusing, even to us as adults.
Operation Varsity Blues, the college admissions scandal, has left us reeling with questions about what is ethical. While the case unearths actions that boldly cross every conceivable line of fairness and justice, other, deeper, more difficult questions remain.
In college admissions, we have long been aware of front-door and back-door admissions. Front door admissions mean that students visit; fill out an honest application; write a personal essay, or quite a few; send a transcript, test scores, and some recommendations; and await the colleges’ decisions. Back door admissions are earned through substantial, usually very public donations, which result in less rigorous admission standards for applicants within the donor’s family. Because of the recent college admissions scandal, we are now aware that some students have gained entry to universities through a side door, through bribery and deceit. While we may have suspected that sinister behavior exists in the world of college admissions, we are all shocked by the scandal’s scope and magnitude.
The deceptive behavior about which we have read in the news is stunning: students’ falsely posing as recruited athletes; parents’ delivering bribery payments and then writing those payments off as charitable deductions; students’ faking learning disabilities; exam facilitators’ changing SAT and ACT answers; college graduates’ taking the SAT or ACT for students; and Division I coaches’ advocating admission for indisputably unqualified athletes. Imagine the damage to the involved children’s psyches. Consider the widespread ramifications and, specifically, the students from whom opportunity was stolen.
How different, though, is this behavior from the other advantages that currently exist within the system?
Our culture places an overemphasis on college selection. We live in a world of window decals, sweatshirts, and national championships. The anxiety and pressure mounting about where our children may enroll is often palpable. That pressure leads us, as parents, to make decisions that may cross lines of fairness and morality.
I have specifically asked myself questions about admission enhancement services readily available to the economically advantaged – college counselors, test prep instructors (me), college essay reviewers (me). Am I part of the problem? While I acknowledge the deep division between the have and the have-nots, in our capitalistic society, the benefits of a private college counselor, test prep, and essay review, while perhaps not acceptable, are clearly accepted. These services are usually above board and widely accessed. Most students have an adult read their college essay who, in turn, offers feedback. Many secondary schools, public and private, offer test prep services within the curriculum.
Other questions plague me: Should legacies earn an edge in admissions? Should athletes, some of whom bring many dollars to their schools, be welcomed without meeting academic admissions standards?
What I do know is that we must all stand firmly against stealth, bribery, and deceit, obvious transgressions that violate our universal moral code and, in many cases, the law. In a world where lies abound, the clearest boundaries must remain intact.
The complex landscape of college admissions is not fair. I have seen far too many incongruent results to declare that it is; however, the complicated landscape is what we have. It is far from perfect, and, until we can change it, we must cope with the system and guide our children accordingly. We must continue to remind them that personal values and morality always carry more weight than the name of the institution they will attend. Our children need to develop into their best selves, not so they can earn admission to a college, but so they will become happy, wise, and healthy adults who can lead our world into a very uncertain future. We also would do well to embrace alternative avenues, other than a four-year college. Not every student should attend college. Gap years, service, technical schools, community colleges, and artistic pursuits offer worthy avenues to success.