What We Can Learn from Operation Varsity Blues

The recent indictment and arrest of 50 people, including celebrities and business leaders, for racketeering, fraud, and money laundering may have shocked people across the United States. I certainly was bombarded with questions from friends and family about my thoughts on the crimes committed by parents, college coaches, College Board administrators, and by others. While this particular case is far from over, and I'm sure that new outrageous details will emerge as the criminal proceedings continue, Operation Varsity Blues already offers all of us some valuable lessons and important insights into the state of higher education in the U.S. today.  Here are the 3 most significant things that we all should take away from this scandal:

• The mania surrounding gaining admission to elite or hyper-selective institutions in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions, particularly in affluent and highly educated communities (such as where I live, right outside of Boston, MA). In fact, it has gotten so out of hand that even the very wealthy and privileged feel so much pressure to have their children be accepted to such a school that they were willing to commit felonies. Let that thought sink in! This scandal should deeply disturb *everyone*, since it illustrates the popular (and deeply flawed) idea that college admission should be seen as a competition to be won. The complete opposite should be true! Talk to teachers/professors, counselors, and psychologists, and we will tell you that college is supposed to be a great time of growth and discovery for young adults. It's meant to be a relatively safe place and time for students to learn how to be functional and independent adults, to expand their minds about the world, to learn how to deal with being pushed outside of their comfort zone, and to obtain the skills they will need to build healthy and happy lives after graduation. For any of this to happen, finding the right school for each individual student is crucial! College is not a "one-size-fits-all" entity, and a "brand name" school definitely does not guarantee that you or your child will experience any of the things that I listed above. If anything good comes out of this scandal, I truly hope that it's the recognition that this Ivy-Fever needs to end, and that it should be replaced by a truly individual-student-centered admission process that supports young adults in healthy ways. 

• As much as we want to drink the Kool Aid, the reality is that even the most student-centered school is going to always look out for its own interests first and foremost. Sadly, this usually comes at the expense of the students. Whether it's relying heavily on adjunct faculty to teach the majority of courses on campus, cutting programs or departments, or manipulating data sent to the U.S. News and World Report in order to receive a higher ranking, post-secondary institutions have embraced a corporate business model which sacrifices caring for and supporting students in favor of boosting rankings, lowering admission rates, and raising their own public profile. Operation Varsity Blues demonstrates that many people in the higher education industry will overlook unethical behavior because they are looking out for themselves instead of caring about students. What's the best way to protect yourself and your family? Knowledge! Do your research! The more you dig deeply into a school's actual environment and administration, the more you will know exactly what you're getting into. Spoiler alert: no college is perfect! Yet, students should be looking at schools where the pros far outweigh the cons, and making educated decisions based on what schools will be most likely to support them academically, emotionally, socially, and financially. That way, you're stacking the odds in your favor. When a problem arises (and, chances are, at least one will during those college years), you will be all the more empowered to navigate the system in place and to protect yourself and your family from being exploited or used by the school. 

• Ethics matter! All of us should be modeling ethical behavior to our students! Young adults need to understand that there are no "short cuts" to anything in life, and that includes getting into and making it through college (check out this great article and broadcast from WBUR for more on this topic). Moreover, making unethical decisions in your own life may cause an unintended ripple effect. For instance, part of Operation Varsity Blues involved parents falsely claiming that their child needed special accommodations for taking the SAT in order to alter the standardized test results. As someone who has worked with students who have learning differences (and as any student with an LD or a parent of a student with LD will tell you), getting testing accommodations for *legitimate* learning differences is already a quasi-Herculean task. Imagine what a nightmare it will be for future students with actual learning differences to receive the accommodations that are their legal right, all because of the unethical choices made by these families who tried to game the system.  Of course, I would be remiss not to mention the scammer at the heart of the scandal, William "Rick" Singer. His predatory actions underline the critical importance of working with vetted professionals! It's not a coincidence that, before his business website was taken down, one could not find any mention of Singer belonging to  a single professional organization. Why? Because both IECA and HECA, the two main governing bodies of the independent college consulting profession, would not have tolerated his or his company's actions. This why I take my HECA membership very seriously, and I urge every family that I meet to please only hire members of IECA and/or HECA in order to ensure that they receive ethical, sound, and professional advice.

Operation Varsity Blues is horrific, but it's important to understand how and why such egregious behavior could occur. While 50 people may have been arrested and charged with committing crimes, far more of us have been guilty of buying into the myth that greater selectivity must mean a better education or college experience. In a way, this fever for elite schools has been fed by parental and student misconceptions, with colleges and universities only stoking that fire for their own benefit. True change will only come when we all stop perpetuating this false belief that getting into elite schools is the key to future happiness and success. Instead, let's focus our energies on identifying the schools that will support each student's individual academic, social, emotional, and financial success. A good place to start is by making sure that we all encourage ethical behavior in our actions and our words. It may be a cliche but it's true: honesty is the best policy.