College Uncovered

Movie Soundbite [00:00:08] Who's ready to announce charges in the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice? They had every advantage, and yet they still cheated.

Movie Soundbite [00:00:19] In America, you love the wealthy, and we hate the wealthy.

Jon [00:00:24] Hey, Kirk, you covered the Varsity Blues scandal, right? Oh, yeah. For years, I covered nearly every single celebrity perp walk. You know the details. John Rich and famous parents paying people off to get their kids into selective colleges. Athletic coaches and administrators at well-respected schools, selling off seats to rich families. You couldn't look away from it, right, John? Yeah. So Netflix and Lifetime even made movies about it.

Movie Soundbite [00:00:48] All of our friends are only talking about one thing, and it's this story, an FBI investigation called Operation Varsity Blues at USC, UCLA and Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the entire Operation. This thing blows up in my face.

Jon [00:01:04] But this episode isn't about Varsity Blues. It's about all the other ways you haven't heard about that rich family's game the college admissions system. This is College Uncovered. I'm Curt Carapaz from GBH in Boston.

Jon [00:01:22] And I'm John Marcus at The Hechinger Report.

Kirk [00:01:24] We're a couple of veteran higher education reporters who have seen a lot. So we've created this podcast to pull back the Ivy and reveal how colleges really work. Today on the show Affirmative Action for the Rich. Because even as the US Supreme Court has restricted colleges from giving black and brown students a leg up in admissions, rich families still have a million advantages in getting their kids into top schools. So we're going to explain some of those advantages that rich and mostly white kids and their families get. And all of them are perfectly legal. So, Kirk, where were you when the Varsity Blues scandal broke? So I was upstairs in the GBH newsroom, and the U.S. Attorney's office announced they would hold a press conference and unveil a major college admissions scheme. Now, at the time, we almost didn't go, but my then editor said, hey, go check it out, the press release says, major, full disclosure here. I had to Google Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. I had no clue who they were. So a little piece of my childhood actually died that day when I learned that she was on Becky from full House.

Movie Soundbite [00:02:32] Becky, do you know something I don't?

Movie Soundbite [00:02:34] Yes, I do. The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months.

Movie Soundbite [00:02:39] Actually, I knew that.

Jon [00:02:42] So the elephant in the room now is that there are many, many other largely hidden legal privileges that already exist for students who have resources and money. These are the quiet little tricks that rich students and their families use to get into college. Yeah, and these advantages, John, they're all around us. Take early decision in admissions. That's the process that allows a student to apply and commit early to a college. And the odds that you'll get in are much, much higher than in regular admissions. I know that game colleges do it because they want to fill their class as early as they can, but early decision favors students who can accept an admissions offer from a $70,000 a year college before they know how much financial aid they'll get before. Yeah, you have to commit before you know how much money you're getting in financial aid. So even if they know about it, poor families can afford to apply this way because they need financial aid. And data shows that colleges are increasingly admitting predominantly wealthy students if they apply early. Here's how it works. If you're a student and you apply to a college, the early decision you're not supposed to apply anywhere else. And if you get in. You're obligated to accept. Since the pandemic, early decision applications have been on the rise. More students are applying early because they've caught on that colleges like it. Colleges say they want diversity and equity, but at the same time, many of them are giving most of their seats away early before their regular applicants even get a shot at them.

Rachel singing/BELTING [00:04:16] What ever happened to class.

Movie Soundbite [00:04:22] Rachel Avani is a self-described theater kid. Here she is belting out Whatever Happened to Class from the musical Chicago.

Rachel singing/BELTING [00:04:29] There ain't no ladies now. There's only takes and for.

Jon [00:04:35] Avani applied early decision to New York University, one of this country's most expensive private colleges, NYU now costs around $90,000 for one year. Applying early decision meant she couldn't apply elsewhere.

Avani [00:04:48] My voice teacher, actually from my high school, was the one who said I should apply early decision because she thought I would have a better chance of getting it.

Jon [00:04:56] And if she got in, she'd need to commit before seeing her financial aid package. She says that was stressful.

Avani [00:05:03] I like cried when I first got it, actually, because I didn't think it was going to be enough.

Jon [00:05:07] Her mom had to go back to work so Rachel could afford to go to NYU and study acting. Early decision benefits colleges by drawing in middle and upper class families willing to commit to paying high tuition out of pocket, or maybe taking out private loans to cover the cost. Now, not every college offers early decision. Only about 450 out of 4000 colleges in the U.S., but that's up from about 100 in the 1990s, a 350% increase. We talked to Katherine Hill. She's the former president of Vassar College. And she says selective colleges are competing for a shrinking pool of rich students who can afford what they're charging. That's right. The pool of rich students is shrinking, so colleges are fiercely competing for them.

Hill [00:05:52] Institutions have been using early decision to essentially manage their classes.

Jon [00:05:57] But we're at a sort of inflection point now. An early decision is drawing criticism from former admissions officials and lawmakers. Schools can't legally use race considerations in admissions or what's called affirmative action. So many folks are questioning why this other kind of built in advantage is okay if you don't give needy students a leg up. Why do it for rich kids?

Elizabeth Heaton [00:06:20] Right now, it definitely is functioning as affirmative action for the rich.

Kirk [00:06:23] There it is. Affirmative action for the rich. Right. That's how Elizabeth Heaton sees it. Heaton worked for years as an admissions official at the University of Pennsylvania, which uses early decision the same way many selective schools do, as a way to let students, many of whom can afford to pay full tuition, signal that it's their absolute top choice and.

Elizabeth Heaton [00:06:45] As a way to guarantee a certain percentage of the class right off the.

Kirk [00:06:49] Bat. But here's something I think you'll find most surprising and disturbing, John. During the pandemic, some schools admitted as many as 80% of their first year students by early decision. Did you say 80? Yes. 88. Zero. That left fewer seats for everyone else applying through regular decision. Kathryn Hill, the former president of Vassar, chalks it up to fears that Covid would wipe out enrollment.

Kirk [00:07:15] Schools were absolutely terrified about whether they were going to be able to fill their classes. I mean, Covid just brought an amazing amount of uncertainty not only to the finances of the institution, but to what was going to happen with enrollments going forward. So I think to the extent that that institutions could lock students in, they they did it.

Kirk [00:07:31] Critics argue that locking in wealthy students keeps out low income ones, especially low income students, who research has shown are more averse to debt. In New York, some lawmakers want to outright ban early decision. They've proposed legislation that would find public and private colleges like NYU, and redirect that revenue toward student financial aid. In Massachusetts, state lawmakers are considering making colleges report admission rates. It's complicated, but basically the proposal would impose public service fees connected to early decision. The state would then use the money to help disadvantaged students. State Representative Simon Cataldo filed the bill and he sees early decision as racially and economically discriminatory.

Simon Cataldo [00:08:18] Lower income kids are smart enough to get into your school. These students are being actively kept out, not necessarily because of a lack of funds issue, but because the schools are actively keeping them out by elevating rich students for those same spots where there's a limited number of spots.

Simon Cataldo [00:08:42] Of course, private colleges oppose any efforts to limit early decision programs. They claim it would drive students to go to colleges out of state. John, we should stop here and say that while the most selective colleges like Harvard and MIT, Amherst and Williams can fill their seats many, many times over with full pay students. Most private colleges struggle to recruit those who can afford their tuition. Michael Dannon Berg is a senior fellow with College Promise. He says it's time for early decision to go.

Simon Cataldo [00:09:14] If we're going to use admissions policy to, limit financial aid or generate revenue, and the colleges might as well just be aboveboard about the whole, lack of ethics associated with it and auction off acceptance letters on eBay. To the highest bidder.

Simon Cataldo [00:09:32] EBay. How 1995. So do you think more states will consider this? You know, it's too soon to say. I think advocates like Danny Enberg are waiting and sitting tight to see what happens with these bills in Massachusetts and New York. And whatever happened with Rachel, Avani, the theater.

Rachel singing/BELTING [00:09:48] Kid now where every son of a bitch is standing up. What ever happened to her?

Simon Cataldo [00:09:58] Well, she's now on campus at NYU and says she felt relieved when she was admitted early.

Avani [00:10:03] All my friends are stressed about college, and I was not. I felt more at peace than I would, and I'm still flying.

Simon Cataldo [00:10:10] Now, John, she didn't get as much financial aid as she was hoping, but Avani went to NYU anyway. And as we said earlier, it wasn't an easy decision. Her mom went back to work to help her pay for college. So many middle class families are in that boat. And meanwhile, there's a bunch of other ways that rich parents and their kids have an advantage in admission. For example, rich, mostly white families hire college counselors. They cost around $140 an hour. These hired college coaches help high school students create their own air quotes here – BRAND, because it could give them an admissions edge and get this Jon. Now, some top companies are giving away this privilege to both executives and rank and file employees as a benefit at no cost. Corporations like JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Paramount Pictures and many, many more give this perk to their employees. But none of these companies call it affirmative action for the rich in their employee handbook. No. No, they do not. Companies are doing this because they think college admissions is so complex that it's distracting parents while they're on the job. And that's exactly what this podcast is about. How did it get so convoluted? Don't say hello.

Shannon Vasconcelos [00:11:24] I can see you now. Hi. We are on.

Jon [00:11:28] We sat in on a session with college counselor Shannon Vasconcelos. She was advising a mother and her teenage daughter over zoom.

Shannon Vasconcelos [00:11:35] So, general topic of our call today is supposed to be paying for college within that landscape. We can talk about whatever you would like. Are there any specific questions?

Jon [00:11:45] The family is on vacation in the Adirondacks, but it seems there's no vacation if you're trying to get into a quote unquote good college. The daughter's a junior in high school, and she has a lot of questions. Vasconcelos has been doing this for years, so she fields them all. She's very calm and she's kind of soothing. But you can hear her excitement when the daughter says her family already has $100,000 in a college savings account.

Shannon Vasconcelos [00:12:12] That's fantastic. So you are you are just about there. Depending on and what school you decide you want to go to. Alex, do you have any thoughts at this point?

Jon [00:12:21] It turns out the daughter wants to go to Harvard or another prestigious school. Vasconcelos, by the way, is a former financial aid officer at Tufts University, and now she's a college coach at Bright Horizons. Hold up. That's the company that offers early childcare for working parents. Yes, exactly. But they're also getting into the other end of the educational spectrum and offering this at zero cost to employees of these big companies who mostly already make a lot of money. Yep. Amazing, right? But what about all the smart students who can't afford this? Of course, this is a huge stress on those students who don't have the money to get this kind of advice, or the kids who don't apply early because they need to know what college will cost before they commit.

Anthony Jack [00:13:04] It calls into question not just fairness, but equity.

Jon [00:13:07] Sociologist Anthony Jack teaches higher education leadership at Boston University.

Anthony Jack [00:13:12] The companies and organizations that put you in the top 1% get more perks, more benefits, more freebies than those who actually need it and would benefit from it.

Anthony Jack [00:13:22] So companies are presenting this latest freebie to attract and retain employees, which which makes sense, right? Because some parents are just as stressed in the process as their kids. But it also raises a bigger problem for families that can't afford it have to rely on public high school counselors, who, on average, provide each of their students with just 47 minutes of advising per year. That's based on figures from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, divided by the number of hours in the year 47 minutes. I mean, that's less time than it took me to commute into work today. When I interviewed her, Shannon Vasconcelos at Bright Horizons acknowledged this problem. In an ideal world, this is the work that would be done by a guidance counselor in a public high school.

Shannon Vasconcelos [00:14:05] That's exactly right.

Jon [00:14:06] She stresses that her company offers college counseling to all employees of a firm, from the C-suite to custodians and security guards. But Boston University's Anthony Jack isn't buying that. He says the admissions game is stacked long before most students even think about applying.

Jon [00:14:23] Students from disadvantaged backgrounds, whether you're going to an underfunded, under-resourced, underpopulated rural school or an overcrowded, overburdened public school in the inner city, your counselors don't have not only just the time, but the knowledge compared to your peers from the suburbs.

Jon [00:14:43] Okay, so let's hear an argument in favor of all of this private college coaching.

Jon [00:14:48] A lot of what we're doing is providing not just college admissions strategy, but it's individual mentors and coaching to help kids lead the most fulfilling, positive, productive, happy lives they can.

Jon [00:15:01] Alan Coe is CEO of Cardinal Education, a college consulting firm in California used by elite executives. Coe defends the work.

Jon [00:15:11] Rich kids are also kids and they have a lot of the same family issues, same emotional issues that everybody does.

Jon [00:15:19] Coe says the real problem that needs fixing is US colleges opaque admissions policies.

Jon [00:15:25] My job does not exist in 150 plus countries in the world. Every country in the world has a more transparent admissions system than the United States. The United States has more variables for college admissions than any other country.

Jon [00:15:46] I'm seeing a theme here about the opaqueness, the complexity of this process, and until college admissions becomes more transparent. All families, especially those with means, will seek advantages any way they can. It just makes sense. Hey, Kirk. So whatever happened to the college coach in the varsity Blues case? Rick Singer, the so-called architect of the scheme. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. A judge ordered him to repay the IRS more than $10 million in forfeitures. Not exactly the poster child for this industry. Jon. Remember Olivia Jade who? Actress Lori Loughlin's daughter. Come on. John. Oh yeah. If you read people magazine, you would know that from some tropical location. She bragged that she was raking in money as a social media influencer instead of going to class. Well, Olivia dropped out of USC and decided not to go back to college. But don't worry, it's not a tragic ending because I was worried. She's now a lifestyle influencer with nearly 2 million followers on YouTube. Hey, there's hope for you yet, Kirk. This is College Uncovered from GBH and The Hechinger Report. I'm John Marcus, and I'm Kirk Carapaz. Coming up next time, the secret sauce of sophomore admissions. We bet you didn't know that colleges admit many students their sophomore year, and you don't even need to reapply.

Avani [00:17:05] I'm technically a transfer student, but it was a lot easier than applying to be a transfer. I went through the transfer application, but I didn't have to write any essays or really do anything except get my teachers to sign things.

Jon [00:17:16] Our show is created by John and Kirk and edited by Meg Woolhouse. Gary Mott and David Goodman are our mix engineers. All of our music is by college bands. Our theme music is groundswell by left Roman out of MIT .College Uncovered is made possible by Lumina Foundation. We'd love to hear from you. Send us an email. Tell us what you want to hear about how colleges really operate. And if you're with a college or university, tell us what you think the public ought to know about higher education. Thank you so much for listening.