College-admissions scandal delivers comeuppance to status-conscious

I’m looking at this nationwide college-admissions bribery caper in the US with some bemusement, although the authorities are taking it quite seriously.

The story is getting outsize play in the United States, mainly because some celebrities have been accused in the racket, in which the FBI charged 50 people — parents, education consultants, private test administrators, and athletic coaches. (If you want a guarantee that a story or issue will get exhaustive coverage, just add a celebrity.)

Parents searching for a prestigious credential for their progeny (and likely for their own social media braggadocio) were willing to pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a back door into an Ivy League or other hot schools.

In one case, an actress and her fashion designer husband allegedly paid $500,000 to have their two daughters listed as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, even though neither had picked up an oar.

Anyone who has watched a crew shell skim across a river can gather that a pair of sinewy forearms and strong lungs would help, usually attributes you can’t get from posting on Instagram or rolling a joystick.

College tuitions, the absurd rise of which has far outstripped inflation, are due for a crash — maybe this scandal is the first sign of it.

Average tuition, fees and room and board at Ivy League universities for the 2018-19 academic year hovered around $70,000, according to statista.com.

Total student debt in the US has hit $1.53 trillion. Student loans are the second-largest source of consumer debt, below only mortgages, according to the Federal Reserve.

Average student loan debt in 2018 was $36,314, spread over 3.3 student loans, according to magnifymoney.com.

I’ve long since given up on figuring out why parents and students saddle themselves with so much college loan debt (not counting bribes). It was a lot cheaper when I went to school, although I still took out a loan.

But even if college were exorbitantly priced then, I would have gone to a two-year community college first, then transferred to an in-state public university.

Sure, a distinguished professor at a tree-lined Gothic campus can make a subject more enlightening, but you still have to read the textbooks and master the coursework yourself.

Not only are there many universities offering degrees online for much less than traditional college costs, there are so many free educational videos online.

If you want to study a foreign language, you can become passably proficient by watching online videos. If you are going into professions such as medicine or engineering or pursuing an MBA, the better the school, the more that employers will pay you, or so the conventional wisdom goes.

Some Ivy League grads too probably have an edge getting in the door at a Wall Street investment bank or white-shoe law firm.

But that diploma doesn’t guarantee you get past human resources. The rest is up to you.

What makes a good student and a potentially good employee?

It’s self-motivation, hard work, trying to better yourself and learning something new every day.

Some of my colleagues at China Daily have gone to excellent US universities, usually for grad school. China sends more students (some 363,000) to the US than any other foreign country.

I have asked some of them, why not Tsinghua University or Peking University? They’ll talk about how hard the gaokao (national college entrance exam) is, and if it didn’t go so well ... and US colleges become an option, et cetera. Perhaps a topic for another time.

Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com