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What Can We Learn From the “Varsity Blues” College Admissions Scandal?

There has been a lot of reporting and discussion around the recent “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal that the FBI brought to light on Tuesday, March 12th. Here is a link to the story if you would like to review what has been reported. I would like to share with you my response and why I think this happens. I say “happens” because I think the practice of parents paying colleges or personnel at colleges large sums of money to give their child an advantage in the admissions process happens more than we think and I am not surprised. First and foremost, we are all sinners in need of a Savior. Nobody is immune to committing the crimes that we are talking about in the news. As Christians, I think it’s important to remember three things in light of these circumstances and hopefully learn how it correlates to our relationship with God.

  1. Pride

Because of The Fall we all will succumb to pride and selfishness. We live in a culture where we want what we want and we want it now. If we start thinking that life is about me and getting what I want, then you start making decisions that will attempt to keep us at the top and will benefit us the most. Having this perspective is not all bad. As Christians we should work hard, utilize the gifts and talents God has given us to glorify Him, but keeping Him first is the key. If the reason that we are getting to the top is so that we can be recognized, celebrated and affirmed, these results will be temporary and we will crave for more and more attention and recognition. Eventually, our moral and/or ethical judgement will get blurred and we will start making decisions that we would never have thought you would make. If we are giving God the glory, not pointing to ourselves but Him when we succeed and achieve great things, we will have a joy and contentment that will last because we understand as believers in Jesus Christ, He gave us the talents, abilities and gifts that allowed us to succeed and He is the one that blesses us in ways that we don’t deserve nor should expect. If we have this perspective we will continually have an outward and not an inward focus which is what Christ had while He was here on earth. Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves.” Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”.

2. Identity

There is a question in the “College Essay Preparation Survey” I give juniors that asks, “how would your friends describe you?”. This is an interesting question that gets students to think about what their identity and reputation may be. If you are believer in Jesus Christ and believe that He died for your sins, you should be getting your identity in Him alone. If you are not a believer, you can only get your identity in something that would put you as the focus. There are very nice, kind, thoughtful and generous people who are not Christians. In the end, however, if your identity isn’t in Jesus Christ, you are going to make decisions that help boost your reputation, status and identity. There are also plenty of Christians who do this, don’t get me wrong. Who you associate with and the people you surround yourself with on a regular basis will definitely influence you as well. If you value what others think of you to such an extent that you will make decisions that make sure you stay well respected, popular and successful with those you associate with, you will make choices that are irrational and unethical at some point. This has to happen because it’s no longer truth that is driving your decision making anymore at this point, it’s human expectation and your own understanding. That’s what could have happened in this scandal. It was important enough for the parents to say that their kids went to a certain school to “keep up with” the others in their social circle, so they were willing to make a terrible decision to maintain this identity. The parents may also have put so much importance on where their children went to college because that reflects on their own reputation and status within their circle of influence. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.” 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character.”

3. Control

From my perspective, this is the main issue in this “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal. When one has affluence, high status and/or a “popular” reputation with outsiders, they typically have been able to control the circumstances in their life. If the opportunity is there to just pay a bit more money to get what they want or make something go away, they will do it. If they have the capability to do this, why not? This is dangerous however, because one thing that we give up in our lives if we ask Jesus Christ to become our Savior, is control. I have heard talk show hosts, news networks over the past week say, “Although I think what they did was wrong, I can understand why they did it”. Some can chalk up what these parents were doing as “loving” their kids so much they would do anything for them. Ultimately, they had the financial means and an opportunity to control the outcome so that’s what they did just like they may have done in other instances in the past. People say, “the kids we are talking about come from families that already had an advantage and the kids already were going to have opportunities in the future and not have to worry about money”. I completely agree, but when Jesus says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”, he is saying that if our hearts are corrupted by selfish motives because we are letting worldly things like money and status drive our decisions, we will continue to make decisions to maintain control. If we cannot submit to God’s will and plan for our lives, then we haven’t given Him control of our lives. We can’t just make him a small compartment in our lives to pull out and use when we want. We need to give Him control of everything in our lives and that includes our future which is unknown and may not go the way we want it to go. Ephesians 1:11 (ESV) says, “In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

Two other articles written on this “Blues Varsity” scandal are below. These are two great perspectives as well.

http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/breakpoint-the-college-admissions-scandal/

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Choosing a College Based on ROI (Return on Investment)

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think ROI (Return on Investment) is important when making decisions. Nobody buys a house for $300,000 and when they sell it hope they get $200,000 for it. No owner of baseball team pays a player $100,000 over 5 years and only hopes they hit for a .200 batting average. Nobody puts money into a 401(K) or a mutual fund and expects to lose money on it. Let me also say that this is a tough topic to nail down because there are many factors involved, but it is a good one to understand and think about before applying to colleges.

What is ROI?

Below is a quote by valuecolleges.com that I thought was a great description of ROI.

“There are a lot of factors to take into consideration. You invest a lot more than just money into a college education – you invest time, work, and stress. That makes college fundamentally different from many other investments.

ROI could be as simple as what income people make vs. what they paid for college and what they owe in student debt, but that is still too simple. Income isn’t necessarily a measure of success, and student loan debt could just mean you took out more loans than you needed to, not that the school was too expensive. While some short sighted people just want to know how much money they can make straight out of school, others want a certain level of long-term career satisfaction. Neither is wrong.

Plus, as Chris Maples, president of the Oregon Institute of Technology explains, there are a lot of different investors in an education, too – not just you, but your family, the foundations that provide grants and scholarships (who don’t want to see their money wasted), the government (which needs the taxes you’ll pay from the work you do with your degree), and the institutions themselves, who put a lot of thought into who they accept and who expect their graduates to prove their worth. You may be fulfilled tending bar with your Ivy League education, but they’re not putting you in the alumni newsletter.”

What are the biggest factors that impact ROI?

6. Earning College Credit While in High School

Through dual credit opportunities your high school provides (DC students and parents, click here to understand our partnership with CCU), you may be able to earn 12-15 or more dual credits that will transfer to the colleges you eventually attend. This will save you thousands of dollars and the ROI is tremendous! There are other opportunities to earn college credit while in high school like AP exams, taking college classes online or in-person while in high school, CLEP exams and more. Click here to read my post titled “Earning College Credit While in High School” for more information.

5. Major

Based on the major you end up pursuing in college, you can start looking at job prospects and career earnings. I do say what you “end up pursuing” because you typically have a year and a half to change majors and decide which major is best to earn your degree in. When you decide on a major, you can then begin to understand the earning potential in that career field. When you are applying to college, it’s important to not just apply to schools you think or see on lists that are “better” for that major because there are plenty of colleges in the United States that will prepare you for a career field in that major. A lot of times what we hear is not the entire picture and it is up to us to put in the time to research and find similar (and less expensive) opportunities that we were not aware of before.

4. Location/Living Expenses

Please see my last post titled, “Sometimes it Pays to Go Away to College” for more information on why going a bit further away to college from home can earn you more merit based scholarship opportunities. It is important to understand what your living expenses in college will be and not have them be so exorbitant that it impacts the debt that you find yourself in after you graduate. Another impact on ROI when it comes to where you attend college is that it is less expensive to live in certain states. This could impact your cost of living while in college as well as after you graduate. Things like gas, food and housing are definitely less expensive in certain states. Where you attend college may have no bearing on where you will work after college but many college graduates tend to get their first job in the area in which they attended college. Companies are also a bit more familiar with graduates from colleges in the area they are located in. If you major in education, you most likely are doing your substitute teaching and earning a teacher’s certificate in the state you attend college in. If you had any internships during your college years, they are typically with companies near the college you attend and then some students continue working with these companies after graduation. When applying to college, consider the area you may go to school in and understand what the living expenses are in that area.

3. Internship/Networking Opportunities

This is a big category for return on investment and one that is talked about in more wealthy and “competitive” areas. Some will say that if you spend more money to go to one of the most competitive admission colleges or universities, it is worth that “extra” amount of money you are spending compared to a less competitive school because the byproduct of attending that school, you now are in a better position to be more successful after you graduate. This is because of the networking opportunities and the “name brand” recognition that the more competitive college may provide. I understand that the most competitive admission colleges offer a unique experience. At the end of my post titled, “Want to Apply to a Competitive Admission College? Think “Outside” the Box”, I provide a link that says there is no correlation to future success if you earn an Ivy League degree in all majors except maybe Finance and Political Science. Earning a degree in these two fields at an Ivy League school can have its advantages. When it comes to other majors however, (Engineering, Nursing, Education, etc.), you can earn your degree at many other schools and find yourself earning the same or more amount of money. There are plenty of colleges that provide many internship and networking opportunities that are not in the top 50 of the US News and World Report and I would encourage you to really look closely at these schools because they will be the schools that award more merit scholarships. Here is a link to a US News and World Report list of 22 colleges that are best for internships or co-op programs and only two are high competitive admission colleges (Cornell and MIT). Two other colleges that are high on the list of providing internship opportunities are George Washington and American Universities in Washington, DC.

2. Tuition/Scholarships

If you going to get a great ROI, you most likely will be making sure that you are not paying more in tuition than you have to. Let me also say that getting a great ROI also means that you are not spending as much of your own money than you have to. You are using Other People’s Money (OPM). What do I mean? Even if you saved up for college and realistically can pay for more of your child’s college expense, it is still smart to get that tuition and room and board cost down that you have to pay because you are spending less of your own money and you are letting the school or government pay for you to attend that school. It may be best to explain this point with an example. A dad and mom save $180,000 (which is a lot!) in their daughter’s college fund. She is accepted to a more prestigious university that would cost them $60,000 a year because they are a “meet need” school. This means that they do not offer merit scholarships. All of their money goes to meeting the financial need of students that attend their school. She was also accepted to a great flagship state university and received a scholarship that covered full-tuition and room and board. She would have had enough money to cover the first three years at the more prestigious university but she would have had to take out loans her senior year for $60,000. What she did, however, was go to the flagship state university that she had a full scholarship to and used that $180,000 for graduate school and to start her career eventually…THAT is a proper perspective of ROI. Merit scholarships are the best way to achieve ROI from colleges. If you have done well academically in high school, you have put yourself in great position to receive large merit scholarships from colleges. Find those colleges and see what opportunities they provide for you. Even if you have mostly B’s and some C’s…there are colleges out there that will give you good merit scholarships!

  1. Student Loan Debt

We are down to the #1 factor that impacts ROI and that is student loan debt. If you are going to have a great ROI from your college education, you will need to keep your student loan debt amount down. It would be great if everyone can avoid having to take out student loans to pay for their college education but for most, this is not realistic. Honestly, I tell parents who can pay for their child’s entire college education that I think it is good for their child to have to pay back some of their college education if they can’t earn the money during college to pay it off. Just to have them take out the subsidized portion of the Stafford Loan ($2,000-$3,000 a year) allows them to have some “skin in the game”. Then they know they are investing in their own education and if they slack off or get lazy, they know that it is costing them. What is a great rule of thumb for how much in student loans a student should take out to pay for college? You should keep your total amount of student loans over four years under the amount of your projected starting salary. For some professions, this means keeping it under $30-35,000, for others in professions that pay more, this could mean keeping it under $50-60,000. Nevertheless, if your total student loan debt over four years is more than your initial starting salary right out of college, it is going to be more strenuous and you will need to make some life decisions to be able to pay the debt off. However, this decision shouldn’t be considered while in college or after you graduate. If you applied to the appropriate colleges you knew going into the application process and then in the decision process and were wise about total cost, merit scholarships, internship/networking opportunities, location and what major you will or may pursue, you already have made a very wise decision on ROI that will pay large emotional, physical and financial dividends for years to come!

1/2. How Do You Approach Life After College?

Based on a book by Jeff Selingo titled, “There is Life After College”, Twenty-something’s nowadays transition into adulthood in one of three ways. They’re either SPRINTERS, WANDERERS or STRAGGLERS. Click here for a great two page document that explains these transitions to adulthood in detail.

Resources from “Return on Investment in College Admissions” Presentation:

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) Study- “Ranking ROI of 4,500 US Colleges and Universities”

CLEP Exams

Earning College Credit While in High School– College Counselor Corner Blog Post

“Choosing Your Major” by Alex Chediak

“Vocation Plans” by Alex Chediak

“Finding Colleges that Offer Big Scholarships”– Lynn O’Shaughnessy

“New FAFSA Changes: Winners and Losers”– Lynn O’Shaughnessy

“What Are Soft Skills and Why Are They Important?”– College Counselor Corner Blog Post

“Sprinters, Stragglers and Wanderers”– Review of book titled “Life After College” by Jeff Selingo