"At what dollar value will you be able to compromise your ethics?"
Director: Chris Smith
Where Available: Netflix
Rating:
The college admissions scandal is way bigger than I could have imagined. I followed along in the news when the first news broke out and when the court hearings were first starting, so until now I thought that I was pretty familiar with the case. However, after watching Operation Varsity Blues, I now know that there was so much more to the story. This documentary puts everything into perspective, and being a college applicant this year myself, it hits home.
A deep dive into the fraudulent methods used by Rick Singer to get the children of rich and famous families into top U.S. universities.
There is this insanely clever transition in this documentary where we go from clips of students crying after reading a decline on their admissions letter to Olivia Jade curling her eyelashes in a makeup tutorial. This transition is all over tik tok with kids making commentary videos saying that the editing team really did their job well, and its true. There is something hilarious and depressing about the thought that Olivia Jade (a teenager who didn't care about her education, and that is clear through interviews and her own youtube videos) got into one of the most prestigious schools in the country (USC) over a student who has been preparing since they got into high school. This is a feeling I know all college applicants are going through right now. You get a decline from a really amazing school and then see that someone else we know got in. This likely makes us think "What made them get in and not me? Did they deserve to get in? How did they get in when I am clearly the better student? I worked so hard to get in and they didn't even try." This is what is so toxic about the college application process. I thought I understood how a high school student's mental health was affected during applications because I was friends with so many seniors my junior year. They were working day in and day out on their essays and supplemental, and I thought that seeing them do this would prepare me for next year. I was wrong. You can never understand the stress unless you go through it yourself. To know now that there are rich parents out there paying to get their students into schools to skip out on the stress and uncertainty while the rest of us who clearly cant afford to do that work our asses off really stings.
One thing I wish was included in the documentary were interviews or clips of the other students whos parents used Rick Singers "side door" method. Olivia Jade was the most well known teenager in the news during this whole trial because her parents are the most famous/well known out of the millionaires involved. She also created a brand for herself through youtube and brand deals. I wanted to see some other students getting called out as well, ones not as well-known to the public. I have no idea how the legality works here because this is just a Netflix documentary, but its definitely something I will be reading up on because I got nothing new in that category.
Rich people get better-standardized test scores. Those who can spend money on SAT/ACT prep tutors are the ones that end up getting better scores anyway. Courses offer 100 to 500+ score improvement in scores for thousands of dollars. A tutor costs 200-500 an hour to help with the SAT. Standardized testing only advantages those who are already advantaged. The predominantly rich families involved in this scandal have the resources and advantages to do fine on these standardized tests, and yet they still cheated. If that doesn't make you angry, then I don't understand your morals.
Operation Varsity Blues is by no means the best documentary I have seen, but its content is what I am personally connected to. This is a documentary all teenagers applying to college and college students should watch. For my friends who applied to college this year and to those who will be applying next year, I have something to say to you: There are THOUSANDS of schools across the country that you can go to. Do not kill yourself over an application to USC or Harvard or Yale. Its not worth it. The only thing those schools have that others don't is the name. Please know that your worth is not determined by your test scores or your application, no matter what College Board says. You are SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT.
QUOTES:
"At what dollar value will you be able to compromise your ethics?"
“Rick, you know, my younger daughter isn’t like my older daughter... she’s not stupid.”
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