Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal

This is an example of a new type of documentary, in which actors act out what supposedly happened in real life. I confess I don't like that approach to documentary making at all.

But there are other things to dislike here as well. There's a lot of supposing. There's a lot of drone shots of the various college campuses in question. (I went to two of them, so it was fun to see them from "up above.") In short, there's just a lot of filler.

The basic story, however, is fascinating: people with a lot of money are willing to buy their children entrance into elite institutions. Not to get them a better education - if the kids don't make the effort, they won't get a good education even at the best of schools. But rather, to get them prestige. The same sort of prestige you evidently get by driving a Mercedes, or wearing Gucci, or ....

What this movie never considers, but should have, is the "follow up": the number of wealthy parents who finance their children's cheating once they get into college. (Paying flunkies with Ph. D.s to write papers for them, etc.) Because remember: it's not enough to get into these places. Students do actually have to perform academically to stay there. So that takes more cheating, which requires more money.

I would have cut about half of this movie, and used the time to cover the follow-up: how wealthy parents keep their kids in these schools. Because remember what the guy who runs this scam says over and over through this movie: he has been operating this scam for 20+ years. So the students he helped to get into these schools must also, in many cases, have had paid help to stay there and graduate.

Several of the speeches by talking heads near the end of the movie are stupid. One says that you can get a good education at most any of the nation's 3000 colleges and universities. That's not true of all of them, but probably true of many of them. But the parents featured here don't give a damn about whether their kids get an education, so that's not an issue for them. The parents are buying the prestige/bragging rights of attendance at these elite schools. And no, most of the nation's 3000 colleges and universities will not provide that.

Whether anyone should care about that prestige is another issue, of course.

This documentary sheds light on the system of getting into a top notch college and reveals how flawed and fraudulent the system actually is. The shocking reality is, it is actually not any different with other systems in our society. For example, in politics, large corporations donate millions of dollars to their representatives to buy influences and outcomes. So for me, the subject of this documentary isn't that shocking at all and all the players involved are just folks who used the flawed system in their advantage.

A story about a college fraud. There is a "back door" and a "side door" and who knows how many more doors available to get anything in life, not just education for your kids.

If you have the money, your options are limitless, yet it is never enough. They have enough money for the rest of their life but they always want more. Can you imagine the audacity to push illegaly for your kids to get into schools knowing they dont deserve it? knowing they will kick out someone who actually deserves it, paying money and in the end get a joke, literally a joke of a sentense for doing so (few weeks to a few months in jail)....give me a break please. With that kind of punishment they will do the same thing tomorrow if the opportunity arrives.

This is a half movie / half documentary hybrid which delves into the college admissions scandal that occurred a couple of years ago now where the wealthy used their fame and fortune to secure a spot for their children to get into an Ivy League college.

I wasn't too familiar with the whole story before watching this and I believe it does a really good job breaking down the events that lead to the many arrests which followed.

The status that Ivy League colleges in the U.S. have established for themselves over the decades has placed an insurmountable amount of pressure on kids who want to be a part of that as they feel they won't get anywhere in life without it. When you see people with wealth that cheat the system for their kids over the much more deserving it really does strike a chord and shows how broken and unfair it all is.

The film displays different perspectives from people directly involved and also outsiders to really flesh out the internal workings of how Rick Singer was able to orchestrate his scheme of getting the undeserving into extremely competitive colleges. Any dialogue heard during the movie portions are transcribed from real wiretap recordings and it's really surprising to hear what some people will say over the phone.

One of the key things to take away from the film is that it's far more important that you or your child gets a quality education as opposed to going somewhere specific to be used as a badge of honour for bragging rights.

"Back doors", "side doors", and endless loopholes - this documentary shows how the world is just an infinite playground for the wealthy. One of the unique elements to this doc is the recreation of conversations which were achieved through wiretapping. These conversations are... disgusting, to say the least. This format really allows you to see just how culpable and guilty these people are. The fact they're on tape admitting to knowingly doing wrong is sickening.

The sentences at the end are, of course, a joke. Without enforcement, this signals there will be a continuation of such practices in the future. But that's how it is in America. A high profile bust with lots of glitz and cameras, followed by an anemic jail sentence. Something's clearly broken here.

Overall, excellent documentary. I'm not usually a big fan of dramatic reenactments in this format - but it worked very well this time.