The College Admissions Scandal: The Movie

Anonymous Writer, ‘21

September 2019

Do you remember the college admissions scandal that broke out early this year? Do you remember all of the drama that circulated out of a very intense and important scandal? Well, it’s not over yet. There is now a movie made by Lifetime called The College Admissions Scandal which is premiering on October 12th. It portrays many aspects of the scandal, but most of the characters are made up and not based on Lori Loughlin or Felicity Huffman (who are the actual women a part of the scandal). Thus, it leaves Americans with an awful taste in their mouths on what this movie truly represents. We all know what happened in the scandal whether we followed the news or not. Parents paid a lot of money to get their kids into the top schools around the country: Yale, Georgetown, and USC. No matter how you say it, it's an awful situation to resurface. When I first heard of the scandal, I was in shock that celebrities would go to such crazy extents to get their children into college. However, no teacher I spoke to was surprised about this fact. They all found it amusing how they “finally got caught” because “these kind of things have happened for years.” We have all found this unfair because people work really hard to take part in the admissions process, while these celebrities can just pay for their kids to get in, which is not a luxury many have. What is the most gruelling is to watch this whole timeline unfold once again in a movie. For many it is just another movie that is as Lifetime states, “A Ripped from the Headlines Feature,” but for many, it hits close to home. If you are a high school student starting the college process, or even a parent of a high school student, watching someone pull the opportunities out from underneath you must be unsettling. Many students have to face a reality where the opportunities they thought were available to them, may be unfairly taken away. The film, although unsettling for some is also a good way to see that despite all of the celebrities’ best efforts to buy spots at colleges, the law caught up with them. This is because in the end, like in real life, people disregarding their status face consequences. Although the consequences may not be the most brutal, it does come to show that celebrities and their money cannot control the world. The movie however still brings into question whether or not the college admissions process is even fair. This is because despite these parents being caught paying their way through the admissions scandal, there are still many that have yet to be caught which makes everyone (including myself) feel uncomfortable knowing that we may be put at a disadvantage due to the most affluent people hoping to cheat the entire process. These stories have finally started to fade in our minds, but this movie is bringing back all of these harsh realities which is not worth all of the mental anguish it has caused. Further opinions can only be formed after the release of the movie, so go check it out!