Don’t Get the Varsity Blues

Scandal!

We just love scandal! And today, it’s a college admissions scandal. As Harvard Law School professor Michael Sandel points out in his book, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, money is increasingly letting rich people to use their wealth to buy things—like college admissions—that used to be obtainable with other currencies.

In the good old days, you could be poor, but if you studied hard or did well at sports, it could lead you to a top college. Now it seems that rich kids can bypass the accomplishment route and crowd out everyone else by using their money to game the system.

In the current scandal, aptly called Operation Varsity Blues (don't ever say that the government lacks a sense of humor), rich parents hired a consultant to falsify their kids’ records and test scores, and bribe college coaches to say the kids should be admitted on athletic grounds.

The result: rich kids getting into elite schools they aren’t qualified for. And the highly-qualified kids who don’t have the money to bribe their way in? Well, they don’t matter, do they? Because they’re not rich.

Get-It Done Guy Was NOT a Rich Kid...

This is a big deal for me; I take it personally. I grew up lower-middle-class. For a little while my family lived in a trailer where I had three cubic feet of space for all my worldly possessions. I moved out at 15 and supported myself—barely—by programming computers. There were days I couldn’t afford to eat. My friends all knew my situation. I found out decades later that they and their parents would conspire to invite me over for homework. And if dinner happened to be served during a study break, of course I was welcome to join.

I studied my butt off. I worked super hard. I took classes at a local community college to help meet unfinished high school graduation requirements. 

…Who Succeeded on Merit

And ultimately, I ended up going to MIT for my undergraduate degree and Harvard Business School for grad school. I needed a lot of financial aid, plus a semester off to earn more money.

And it changed my life. It was the American Dream: With hard work, I got into top schools where I could get an education to give me the skills for success. 

In today’s world, we have the American Dystopia: A lazy rich kid who can’t make the grade (literally!) can use their...

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