Q3. How do you think the general environment, particularly economic, demographic, international and sociocultural forces, fed into the admissions scandal?

Q4. Are the children who were aware of the cheating scheme purely victims in this situation, or should they also be considered unethical? Explain your answer using one of the four approaches to deciding ethical dilemmas.

Q5. Based on what you have learned about Rick Singer, his involvement, and his decision to cooperate in the investigation, where would you place his level of moral development? Explain your answer.

GUILTY AS CHARGED At rome point daring the investigetion, Singer, Riddell, and Meredith agreed to become "cooperating witnesser" for the FBL. They wore wire tapa that reoorded their oonverantions with wealthy parentr, and they turned orer ineriminating o-maile related to the schems. The three agroed to eater guilty plean and to cooperate fully with the investigution in exchange for what they hoped would be more lenient veatencing. 224 Singer pleaded guilty to obstrustion of juatise, money laundering contpirasy, rasketeering conspinasy: and conspinacy to defrad the United States. 225 He told U.S. Diatrict Court Judge Rya W. Zobel, "I am absolutely rezponsible for it," adding that "I put everything in place. I put all the people in place and made the paymentz direstly." 226 Actress Felioity Huffman was the first pareat senteased in the admiczioas scandal. She pleaded guilty to fraud, and the court ordered that she serve a 14-day jail term, pay 2330,000 fine, and ocemplete 250 houre of oommunity servioe. John Vandemoer, the former Staford Univenity sailing coash who had aceepted a total of $610,000 in bribec, pleaded guilty to racketeering. The sourt ordeced that he secve one day in prison, apend two yeare on supertised relesse, and pay a $10,000 fine. 227 An of thin writing, real-estats exssutive Toby MacFadane has reseived the longest prizon zentence of anyone involved. The court sentensed MocFarlane to six months in prizon, two yearz of supervized release, 200 hours of community servioe, and a $150,000 fline for paying $450,000 for athletio spotz at USC for his con and daughter. WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE? Ia spite of their guilty pleav, are Singer and these pareato, coashec, and adminietrators the only onev responsible for the largest oollege admiations ssandal in Department of Justioe hiatory? It is likely that ayetemis fastors played a role as well. Many of the parenta imoked cited the iatense pressure zurrounding college admisciona that plagues both studeate and parente. Indeed, a luscative industry of test preparation and tutoring han blossoned in response to this presture. In apite of research that shows no substantial link between a person'z undergraduate degree-granting institution and their subsequeat avosecses, maary pareate hold tipht to the belief that their kido can only truly zucoeed if they have a degree from an ewoluaive sohool. 299 Sadly, the academio ashievemeat rase often atarto as eady as kindergarten, with more and more teacher leaving the teaching profection rather than partisipate in orerly strustured, rigorous, testingfocused eavinonments that they believe are akin to child abase. And what about the broader aystem of oollege admiations? Are surreat admicrioas criteria doing a good job of selecting the most promising and most deserving studeats? Studies svegest that standardized test zoores don't predist maoh more than firztyear grades and retention ratez, but SAT and ACT soores remain the gold atandard in admiasiona decizions acrosa the apectrum of collegso and univeraities. Other factors that play a role in atudenta' chances of getting into their school of choice includs whether they attended a private high zchool, their family cocioeoonomis atatus, and their gender (femalez often are viotimz of dizerimination in the college admiasions prooesz). 231 When azked how she felt about the scandal, Mia M, a ztudeat at Martin Luther King High, said, "We hare orested a meatality that we muat be the best at all costo. Ondes are valued orer integrity, and alternative factz prevail over truth. Constant comparisone make us besome desperate to be perfect." Alex Lee, a student at Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC, expressed his sadness over the scandal, saying. "I feel zorry for everyone in this situation. The pareats, besause they feel as if this is the only way to ereate happineco for their ohildren, the rtudenta because some had no idea, and Who's to Blame for the College Admissions Scandal? In March 2019, news broke that the FBI had uncovered a scheme in which 50 wealthy parents had paid a combined $25 million dollars to get their children admitted to elite univeraities like Stanford and Yale between 2011 and 2019. The list of people charged ineluded celebrity parents Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, as well as high-profle executives, attorneys, university athletic coaches, an expert test-taker, and standardized testing professionals. 219 At the center of the scandal was William "Rick" Singer, a collego-prep consultant who had masterminded the operation under the cover of his federally registered 501 (c) 3 charity, Key Worldwide Foundation. 220 HOW DID IT WORK? Singer used several atrategies to bolster the parents" chances of enagging prestigious university apota for their kids. One tactic was to direct the parents to a psychologist who would evaluate their children for learning disabilities. Singer suggested parents tell their kids to "be stupid... be slow... be not as bright" in order to receive a diagnosis that would permit the students to have extended or unlimited time as well as an individual room for the ACT and SAT college entrance exams. 221 For some students, this was enough to improve teat scores. Parents who wanted additional help made sizable "charitable donations" to Singer's nonprofitbetween $15,000 and $75,000 per test-to have an expert test-taker, now identifled as Mark Riddell, complete exams for their kids. This ploy had parents traveling to one of two centers where exam administrators Igor Dworskiy and Niki Williams would be waiting to pocket $10,000 per test to allow Riddell to either take the exams himself, correct the kids' responses, or feed them the correct answers as they were testing. Riddell also earned approximately $10,000 per test. Many of the children who beneflted were unaware of the test-cheating scheme. 222 Other maneuvers included Singer creating phony athletic proflles for the students, then paying bribes to college coaches for apots on their team rosters. In one case, parents paid Singer $1.2 million to secure their daughter's admission to Yale. Singer created a fale athletic profle for the girl, sent it to Yale soccer coach Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, and, after she was admitted, cut Meredith a check for $400,000223