5 stunning details from the DOJ's college entrance exam sting

College admission exam.
(Image credit: seb_ra/ iStock)

The Justice Department on Tuesday revealed it had uncovered a massive college entrance exam cheating scam, charging 33 parents for using "bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children's admission" into colleges. Those charged include actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, along with several NCAA Division I coaches who allegedly accepted bribes. Here are 5 of the wildest details in the indictments.

1. The kids weren't always in on it. The criminal complaint alleges that "in many instances," students didn't know any cheating was going on at all. No students or schools were charged Tuesday.

2. It's easy to be a Maxxinista. When a parent suggested a $160,000 donation could secure a spot on Stanford University's sailing team, a cooperating witness running the scheme scoffed, saying: "That's not all it takes. This is not TJ Maxx or Marshall's."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

3. Athletics were huge. The Yale University women's soccer coach allegedly knew a recruit didn't even play soccer, but was paid $1.2 million and let her on the team anyway.

4. So was Photoshopping. Parents allegedly paid to have photos of their children edited onto the bodies of pole vaulters or water polo players to get them recruited as athletes, often dissing their kids' athletic abilities along the way. Students allegedly quit the teams once they got on campus or faked injuries.

5. Huffman loves Scooby Doo.

See more

Unrelated bonus: It's not in the charges, but Loughlin's daughter, in an video announcing she was going to the University of Southern California, said "I don't really care about school" and "I don't know how much of school I'm gonna attend."

And another one: This 2016 tweet from Huffman is just begging for witty replies. Kathryn Krawczyk

See more
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.