In 2019, Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman found themselves in the midst of a very public college admissions scandal. Both actresses became a very serious face in the FBI investigation of fake college admissions of children from exceptionally affluent and powerful families. However, these two women were not the only ones under investigation and the FBI made federal charges against more than fifty people in total.
Three people were charged, including three accused of organizing a crime, a college administrator, nine coaches from elite universities, two ACT / SAT administrators, an exam proctor, and thirty-three guardians. The FBI investigation was dubbed Operation Varsity Blues and focused on a larger scheme that allowed rich and powerful people to cheat and bribe their children in elite colleges around the country.
Netflix has released a documentary on the ordinance. Operation Varsity Blues: College Admission Scam Investigations show that reenacted footage is also included. At the center of the documentary is Rick Singer, the college admissions advisor who has circled the entire plan. Travel with us as we investigate Netflix’s portrayal of the College Admissions Commission scam.
abstract
Operation Varsity Blues: College Admission Scam Rick positions Singer (Matthew Modin) as the leading “character” in this story. The documentary featured recordings of telephone conversations. Singer circled this callgirl scheme with her customers. However, Operation Varsity Blues Not all re-enactments are dramas
Stretched between the reacted scenes, there are interviews with real people involved in the investigation. Singer’s former colleagues, investigators, attorneys, and others all weigh in on how Rick Singer and everyone involved can pull off such a mammoth plan.
despite the fact that Operation Varsity Blues Focuses on some of the more well-known people who explicitly abuse their privilege, it sheds broad light on the upper class in general. It is not just a story that someone was able to manipulate the system, it is a story about how the college system is rigid in favor of the privileged elite in the United States.
Parents and Standardized Testing
Operation Varsity Blues It also criticizes the current state of standardized testing in the United States and the role that industry plays in the college admissions process. Students from low-income, undernourished families generally perform more poorly on the SAT and ACT tests than their peers from more stable income households.
The documentary also throws an important light on the mindset of some parents involved in the scandal. It is clear that some of the children involved in the scheme were not even aware that they were being implicated by their parents. Some parents collaborated with Singer on the backs of their children to create test scores and a means to gain access to these top-tier schools.
It was abundantly clear that the children knew what was going on or not Operation Varsity Blues That the children of these very rich people could not attend these schools on their own free will.
Rick singer
Despite the fact that the media used Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman as the face of the scandal in their coverage, Rick Singer is actually the de facto central figure here. The documentary accurately portrays him. The development of the singer from the high school basketball coach in Sacramento to the shadowy college admissions counselor advances the story.
In the documentary, Singer identifies what he calls the “front door” entry in these elite colleges. It is a valid method through authentic test scores, grades and applications.
He then identifies the “back door” way. This is when incredibly wealthy families make multi-dollar donations to the school as a way of getting priority for their child’s application. Although not a valid practice, it is not new and certainly not created by Singer.
“Side door”
The documentary depicts how Singer made a “side door” entry to these elite schools. They realized niche games that are really only accessible to the very rich and famous could serve as a side door entrance to people because these games were largely inferior. Sports events such as fencing, water polo, rowing, horse riding and sailing became targets of the singer’s scandal.
Singer went on to bribe coaches and athletic directors to pick up the children, stating that in fact there was no background or proficiency in these chosen sports fields. The college admissions committees turned a blind eye or actually trusted the coaches that they would not send candidates. Instead of paying millions of dollars to bring their children to these schools, people were only handing out tens of thousands, making this “door to door” more attractive.
Many of those charged were convicted and sentenced to jail time. Prisons vary greatly in their length. Operation Varsity Blues: College Admission Scam Now available to stream on Netflix.
