College Admissions Scandal: My Kids Will Take Their Own SATs, Thank You Very Much by Dawn Taylor

I was dumbfounded to hear about the college admissions scandal, where parents (some very famous) paid to get their kids into colleges they weren’t qualified to attend. Fake sports profiles to get scholarships, hiring stand-ins to take their child’s SATs, bribes to college coaches and administrators. I am not a parent with money, but I am a parent with the good sense to teach my kids they will work for what they want. If I had money it wouldn’t be any different, I can assure you that.

My son, who is a junior at St. Lawrence University, a notoriously uppity college, didn’t get in his first year so he went somewhere else and worked his butt off to transfer, which he did. In doing so, he was on the President's List and received a generous Dean’s award for his hard work coming in. He’s in a college I would otherwise not be able to afford because of his hard work, not because I bribed someone or had someone do the work for him.

My daughters, who are in middle and high school, have a parent who they know cannot buy expensive things, but I believe they want for nothing. I cannot afford Harvard (one daughter’s choice) and the other UCLA, and I have full confidence they are qualified. I don’t worry about the financial aspects, not because I hope to win the lottery, but because I know the resources as well as the financial aid that is available to low-income families. My girls are intelligent, honest and hard-working – they work toward their goals and my job is not to give them an easy ride. My job is to support them while they navigate their education, and to assist with the process of accessing the resources they will need to achieve their goals. 

How dare these privileged families possibly steal spaces that other more-deserving kids might have wanted. I’m angry about their entitlement. Shame on them.