In an article from The New York Times titled, “College Admissions Scandal: Parent Gets 4 Months in Brazen Scheme”, a father was sentenced to four months in federal prison. According to the article, written by Kate Taylor, Devin Sloane “ordered water polo gear online and had his son pose in it for a photograph in the family’s swimming pool.” Following the photoshoot, the father hired a graphic designer to enhance the the photo to assist in securing admission to the University of Southern California, “for the price of $250,000, some of it paid as a bribe to a U.S.C. official.
Sloane pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. The article also mentions the recent trial of actress Felicity Huffman, who was sentenced to 14 days in prison for paying $15,000 to cheat on her daughter’s SAT.
This article is newsworthy because a number of people have recently been attempting to commit fraud in order to get their children into college. This is a result of the rising difficulty and competitiveness in the college admissions process.
Overall, I thought this was a fairly well-written article. It was short, detail-oriented, and got the main point across. The article brought up some good points around the subject of different sentences being handed out to different fraud situations. The article was also put together well, in the inverted pyramid form.
Article:
This is less about the competitiveness of getting into college than it is about getting under-qualified students into prestigious universities so they can keep up appearances.
There is also a certain amount of warning in the story for those who have yet to reach plea deals.