i am going to find out either tomorrow or the day after if i'm getting into my dream school. >> the unbearable weight of the 18-year-old. chasing the college dream. >> yeah! >> ahhh! ♪ ♪

>> how did it become -- >> operation varsity blues. >> you don't need to work. you don't need to study hard. you just have to write a check. >> a nightmare. >> coaches, entrepreneurs and celebrities. >> it may have looked like a hollywood premiere at times. >> lori, lori, pay for my tuition. lori! >> do you want the experience of game days, partying, i don't really care about school. >> are you satisfied? >> do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity? >> two famous actresses caught up in what prosecutors are calling the largest college admissions scam ever. >> crazed parents doing whatever it takes. >> it's unbelievable. it is so competitive to get your kid into school today. >> the parents are terrified. >> it's parents who are driving a lot of this craziness. >> a fierce competition. >> top schools like yale, wake forest, georgetown. >> and it starts early. >> the youngest we've gotten for

college consulting would be third grade. >> they're pushed. they're prodded. they're in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. >> you may begin. >> it's a big money business. >> we will create packages that can break a million dollars. >> and the real scandal may be what is legal. a side door for rich kids sports. >> there's only certain families that can afford to have their kids play some of these sports. >> donors children getting a leg up. >> we allow them to play this corrupt game in admissions. >> who is to blame? >> they set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. >> finding the road back. >> dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper into which path is the clearest one to take. >> to what college is supposed to be.

>> they haled the end of the war in europe. >> in america in 1945 anything seemed possible. >> and what a thrill. >> with world war ii over, the country was revving its engine. >> almost 50 million motor vehicles. >> and for a surging middle class, the american dream had a new name. the gi bill. almost all who served could go to college for free. millions jumped at the chance but the most elite schools still remained closed to many. they were private clubs open mostly for america's

aristocracy. white anglosaxan protestants. at harvard one man wanted to open the gates. >> really get going. >> the school's president asked himself what would thomas jefferson do? jefferson had written that america should create an aristocracy of talent to replace the aristocracy of birth and wealth. >> now he's about to enter an environment more in keeping with his social position. >> most harvard men, and they were still all men, came from prep schools with the right pedigree. >> at college he will meet men of his own kind. >> they went into harvard. >> good manners often trumped good grades.

>> extremely handsome and charming. writes wonderful thank you notes. >> how dare an american with the fields, working with the hands or jefferson's diamonds in the rough just waiting to be discovered. >> let's find those people and bring them to harvard. >> but how to find them? conan decided that we needed a test, not to measure knowledge, greek or higher mathematics. that would favor the well schooled. >> this really isn't the kind of a test that you can study for. >> instead, we need a test that measures innate aptitude. harvard had such a test for scholarship students. >> ready. begin. >> and it became -- >> you may begin. >> -- america's s.a.t. a test for all-americans. last year 2 million students took it. james conan's dream of a

meritocracy. >> and admit you to the fellowship of educated men. >> of the smartest outshining the most privileged seemed to be coming true. the s.a.t. was meant to be the great leveller. it would give everyone a chance to climb the ladder of success, and for decades it did bringing millions of new faces into america's establishment, but how did we go from creating an aristocracy of talent to spawning a criminal conspiracy? >> this college admissions scam story, the biggest one ever prosecuted. >> do you want to say anything to your fans, felicity? >>. >> the college admissions scandal. >> lori, lori, lori, pay for my tuition. lori! >> is there anything you want to say to the charges against you? >> from the moment it hit the head lines. >> we have no comment. no further comment.

>> the massive sting exposing the ugly truth. >> america was appalled. >> are you satisfied with what the judge decided today? >> it is morally outrageous. you don't need to work anymore. you don't need to take your time and do the right thing. you just have to write a check! >> seems like we're working for nothing if they're just coming and just buying their way into college. >> having a lot of money is not part of what makes a person a person. >> the story behind the scandal was the stuff of tabloids. >> who's who of coaches, entrepreneurs and celebrities. >> felicity. >> my favorite. >> are you asking for a bribe? >> pretending you're a dumb? >> i've got my checkbook. >> the actress felicity huffman pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 -- >> is prison the right sentence. >> -- to inflate her daughter's

s.a.t. score. >> i want to model for ply daughters having a voice in the world and, you know, that means having influence and having power. to tell you the truth, having money. >> lori. straight ahead. >> we may have -- well, he may have embellished, lied a bit on our application. >> lori loauk laugh lynn and he husband pleaded not guilty. daughter olivia jade got into usc -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- even though she was neither a rower. >> really winded. >> nor a scholar. >> i do want the experience of like game days. partying. i don't really care about school, as you guys allgame. just realize that this is a game. >> at the center of the scheme, independent college counselor rick single zbler why did you

game the system? >> my key method unlocks the full potential of your son or daughter and sets them on a course to excel in life. >> singer showed an ability to con and dazzle even very successful people. >> they're planning to come pick me up. come to the meeting for a couple of hours, put me right back on the plane, send me to the next place i need to go. >> lori, straight ahead. >> felicity. >> the hollywood names made the headlines. >> are you guilty? >> but some other parents were the most dumb founding. singer charged this woman $50,000 to have a stranger take her son's a.c.t. her name is jane buckingham and she is a parenting expert. >> every working mom comes to me and says, how do i do it all? well, guess what, you can't? no one is super woman so don't try to be. >> she even gave her son's handwriting sample to make the

forgery easier. >> also, don't let guilt be your guide. >> but buckingham did plead guilty to fraud. >> corruption is almost inevitable. it doesn't surprise me in the least that some people would try to game the system. the system is inherently phony. >> it's unbelievable. it is so competitive to get your kid into school today. >> frenzied parents lying and paying bribes to give their children a leg up. not exactly what thomas jefferson had in mind when he envisioned the meritocracy, but the founding father could not have foreseen this crazed competition. it's all because a four year degree has become the great economic divider in america. people who have one will earn about twice as much in their lifetimes as those who don't, and those who get the golden ticket, an ivy league degree, can, government figures show,

earn more than double the income of other college graduates. >> parents get more and more anxious, that's why they turn to independent counselors. you know, they're desperate. >> there are at least 15,000 private college counselors in america. you can find dozens of them on youtube. >> hey, guys. have you ever wondered how to get that elusive wow factor? >> today i want to speak about what you should never speak about during an ivy league admissions interview. >> many are reputable, but they are largely unregulated even as their business is exploding. >> we decline families all the time. a c average isn't going to get you into harvard and there's nothing any consultant is going to do about that, well, any legitimate consultant. >> private counselor allen koh likes to start their consultants early. we like to start at fifth grade.

the youngest is third grade. >> you heard doing. >> i was shocked that i knew someone who did this. i was shocked that this was even possible. >> and something else surprised him. the sums of money involved in the scandal. >> i think a lot of people were shocked because they were so big. i was shocked because they were so small. our most expensive college application package was $350,000. >> that price doesn't include test preparation. >> everything is a la cart for test prep. for families with special circumstances we'll have packages that can top a million dollars. >> do you have anything to say? >> money is at the heart of the college admissions scandal but more troubling than the bribes paid are the legal ways that

money is used. wealthy parents spend lavishly to prepare their child. >> from childhood on they're pushed, prodded, in the hands of tutors, coaches, test preparation. >> and it pays off. if you make over $200,000 a year, your kids will score on average 400 points higher on the s.a.t. than kids from low income families. wealth also gives students a big advantage if their parents are donors. >> at some schools giving 10 million isn't enough because 10 million makes no impact on their school. they want 30, 40, 50 million. >> rick singer convinced parents that his schemes were actually a bargain. >> he was saying to the parents, yeah, you're paying me hundreds of thousands of dollars but this is going to save you money. otherwise, you'd have to give $10 million to one of these schools to get your kid in. >> dan golden is a pulitzer

prize winning journalist. he wrote "the price of admission." at his own alma mater, harvard, he looked at how often the children of big donors gained admission. >> harvard has a group on the committee on university resources. something like 400 people. then i came across jared kushner's parents on this committee. and i was interested because most of the people on the committee were alumnae and jared kushner's parents had no affiliation with harvard. >> white house advisor jared kushner, then an unknown teenager, applied to harvard. >> i began speaking with people who were familiar with jared kushner's high school record and it turned out he was not a particularly outstanding or motivated student and there was no lack of people willing to attest to that. >> charles kushner had donated $2.5 million to harvard. jared got in. >> so what i don't understand is

how is it that harvard can let t the donations and jared kushner's acceptance. it doesn't take a hit harvard does not comment on reputationly? we should adjust and say, oh, t individual applicants. ivey league schools do point out that large donations give them the chance to educate students who could otherwise not know them. they also contend some students of large donors are rejected. what is clear is that in this meritocracy, it still matters who your parents are, especially if they went to the school of your choice. legacy admission gives strong preference to the sons and daughters of alumnae. >> the idea that you get a special fwlaek your parents went there. why? was this futile england? >> they're terrified of what would happen to their fundraising. >> according to the harvard crimson, 1/3 of the freshman class had relatives who went to harvard. legacy admission is deeply entrenched at many top tier

schools. to understand where it all began, let me take you back to a pterbling c >> they founded might have saw accumulation of wisdom. >> in the early 1900s the number of jewish boys applications began rising. >> they tended on average to over perform and have an education obsessed culture. >> anti-semitism was far more prevalent and concern over jews at ivy league schools. >> he ththey came knocking at t doors of the ivys and they were uncomfortable. >> they called it the jewish problem. his solution, count the jews to see how quickly their numbers were rising. >> they felt, you know, jews will take over.

>> according to the historian jerome cariban, they poured over records but it wasn't clear who was jewish so a ranking system was used. j1 for students clearly jewish. j2 more than likely jewish. j3 could be jewish. the findings, in 1922 harvard was 21% jewish. the president decided to take action. >> i am instituting a jewish corridor. >> there was strong push back to the ugly idea of counting jews. >> they looked for ways to hold down jewish enrollment without actually having a specific jewish quota number or antijewish policy. >> several other ivy league schools, yale,columbia, were also dealing with the so-called jewish problem. one answer turned out to be legacy admissions. >> to be one of another greater

society of free and enlightened men. >> schools began giving preference to the sons of alumnae. the idea was if they did so, they would not be able to take in as many jews. up next, rick singer's dark scheme. >> what do you want to say to your former players? >> to cash in on the enormous power of college coaches. hi i'm joan lunden.

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what do you want to say to your former players? do you have remorse? >> yale soccer coach took over $400,000. >> john vandemore pleaded guilty. >> stanford's sailing coach agreed to take over $600,000 for the sailing team. >> do you have anything to say. >> the fbi believed that u.c. tennis coach was paid more than $90,000. >> in all, ten coaches and athletic directors were accused. five pleaded guilty, the other five who pleaded not guilty were

hit with still more charges in october. >> mr. singer, have you -- >> what about all of the students that were qualified and cheated out of those funds. >> some students were kept out of school because of what you did. >> it's no coincidence that college sports is at the heart of the biggest college admissions scandal in history. >> singer worked with the parents to fabricate impressive athletic profiles for their kids. >> singer knew this was a weak link. >> they had been fabricated. >> charging documents says they accepted millions of dollars in bribes. >> coaches had enormous power to choose their recruits. >> what made you want to plead guilty? >> it was tough to bribe a whole committee, but you could bribe one person. schools say they are addressing the problem stressing that they were victims in rick singer's scheme. but the system they created

lives on where some kids get huge advantages in admissions through the side door of athletics. >> they weren't the victims. i mean, that's ludicrous. they set up a system that favors wealthy people and that made this scandal possible. >> when people think of college sports, they often think of all-american favorites like football and basketball. sports with lots of publicity and many low income and minority students, but there is also rowing and lacrosse and water polo and other sports that a lot of rich white kids play and that many college applicants can't afford. elite colleges reserve a huge number of slots for all athletes. more than 30% of the class in some schools. and they dramatically lower

admissions standards to let t @ the@least in. >> for all of the preferences the preference for the recruited athletes is the biggest for how much it helps candidates. >> take harvard, for example, every applicant's academic record is ranked on a scale from one to six with one being the highest. those who scored a 4 who were not athletes got in less than 1% of the time but the athletes who scored a 4 got in around 70% of the time. harvard claims that no one is admitted based on one single trait. still, admissions at elite schools for athletes like lacrosse players is often effectively affirmative action for rich white kids. >> you can't play this absurd game where you have an affirmative action plan for rich white people because you have a

back door for these sports. >> rich parents spend loads of money to help their kids become recruit worthy athletes paying hefty sums for coaching and camps, meanwhile, of course, many poor kids don't have access to it. >> there's only some families that can afford to have their kids play these sports. >> so why do elite american colleges favor athletes in the first place? after all, other countries don't have these kinds of preferences for baseball players or skiers. >> people would look at wait, what? >> one big reason for the favoritism is tradition. in the early 20th century american colleges saw athletics as a way to mold young men's character.

>> underdog. >> college sports grew wildly popular with the public. >> yale squared off against harvard in the final game of the season. >> spawning powerful athletic departments and loyal alumnae. >> i think if you gave the average college president at these kinds of colleges a few drinks and said, do you want to dial this down they'd say, yes, but they'd say the alumnae, i'd hear from them immediately and they'd put up a big fuss. >> college presidents like to talk about meritocracy but, in fact, they kept key elements of the old aristocracy in place like athletics and legacies. >> yale was founded more than two centuries ago by ten congregational clergy men. >> when one college president tried to take on legacies, all hell broke lose. kingman brewster's president in

the '60s. he admitted women to the college. he wanted to make yale more inclusive and he slashed legacy admissions by almost half in just one year. >> disaster. immediate disaster. >> the alumnae revolted. yale graduate william f. buckley jr. lamented that the son of an alumnus now has less of a chance getting in than a boy from ps-109 somewhere. >> that contribution fell off a cliff. >> eventually brewster gave in and since then no other ivy league school has dared to take it on. >> they're terrified for what would happen to their fundraising if they got rid of legacy preference.

>> but there are great schools out there that avoid legacy preference and they're doing just fine. cal tech doesn't cater to alumnae kids and it has one of the largest endowments in the nation. even oxford and cambridge with their centuries of hallowed tradition refuse to favor alumnae children. >> their endowments are into the billions. america is the land of democracy but at least in college admissions the reverse is true. >> when you add up all of the admissions preferences at elite schools, like legacies, recruited athletes, and children of wealthy donors, you get an astounding number. at some schools it's around 50% of the class. >> that is the behavior that's

typical of a corrupt private club. coming up, at barrera college in kentucky, in order to get in here you must be poor. when we come back. get ready for the insurance-themed experience of a lifetime. it's "progressive on ice." everything you love about car insurance -- the discounts... the rate comparisons... and flo in a boat. ♪ insurance adventure awaits at "progressive on ice." tickets not available now or ever. we chose eleanor. it was great-grandma's name. so we're in this little town near salerno and everyone has dad's eyebrows.

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graduation day. it is a celebration of one of america's most cherished ideas. if you're talented and work hard enough, you can make it to the top. >> it's time for you to lead the way. >> you are the living, breathing proof that the american dream endures in our time. it's you. >> to make it into yale law school, the top law school in the country, students must compete in a rigorous academic contest. >> you're sitting here today because you ranked among the top .3 of 1% of a massive

meritocratic competition. >> earning agree from yale is considered the golden ticket to the american elite. it's an exclusive club that includes bill and hillary clinton and four sitting supreme court justices. but in 2015 students at commencement got some bad news from this man, the meritocracy is bad. yale law school professor daniel markowicz that the payoff they had been working for their whole lives is actually a tramp. >> working from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week without vacation or sick days for every week of the year. >> in other words, the system isn't even working for the winners. >> we're now in a state in which a narrow elite is much too rich for society's good and works

much too hard for its own good. >> his main argument is that by rewarding a specific kind of achievement above all else, the meritocracy is making americans miserable and creating a hyper unequal society. >> if you're a middle class kid or a poor kid, you simply can't compete with the educations that rich kids are getting. >> that's one of the reasons why at 38 of the most elite colleges including yale, princeton and brown you'll find more in the top 1% than the bottom 60% but there is another way. an alternate universe, if you will. at a small liberal arts college in the foothills of appalachia. barrera college only admits high performing low income students who have been excluded from our

modern meritocracy. rich kids need not apply. you heard that right. barrera will reject their applications. it doesn't want their money. this college is completely free. 98% of freshmen are pell grant recipients and come from families that earn an average of $28,000 a year. these are some of the poorest kids in the country. >> had you heard of barrera ahead of time? >> the president believes this is one of the key ingredients to its success. >> at barrera no student feels stigmatized because all students come from the same economic context. >> all students are required to work for the college at least ten hours a week. >> i know some students who looked at free college and found barrera. >> this sounds fake. i thought there was a catch. >> i thought it was a scam. there's no way. >> but there is a way.

in 1855 the college was founded to provide an education for students excluded from ee leelt colleges, including women and freed slaves. how do they do it? well, it now has a $1.2 billion endowment. while ivy league schools still admit the children of wealthy donors and legacies, largely for the sake of their endowments, barrera has made it to the list of america's hundred richest colleges in another way, shrewd investing and old-fashioned again. >> narrator: ross city. >> come join us. it's giving day. >> there's a fundamental impulse in american philanthropy to give to those who deserve it but lack the means and we've tapped into that for many, many years. >> data analysis takes a little

while. >> if you're wondering how it ranks nationally, this year it jumped 15 points making it one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the country but they have pledged not to publicize its rankings. he believes they fuel the college admissions frenzy by focusing on the wrong metrics. money and status instead of quality. barrera's admissions office doesn't obsess about test scores and grades, instead, it identifies students who display extraordinary potential like mccall engel. he now works in the admissions office as a student manager and studies marketing. he spends any moment he can on his true passion, making music. ♪ ♪

>> i feel like this is somewhere i belong. i felt very welcomed as soon as i got to the college and was shown all of these different resources. wow, these people actually want to help me succeed. >> the college has built a culture in which students help each other to succeed. >> it means the world to me. i feel like this is home for me. i feel like this is home for a lot of people. >> dan markowicz thinks this offers one possible solution to the madness of the meritocracy. >> excellent education is an education that teaches you what you need to know, the knowledge and the skills that you need, north to do good work that's useful. >> dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper into which path is the clearest one to take that will make you become successful. >> the universities are realizing it's too hungry for assets, status and privilege and they've got to diversify.

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affirmative action. >> affirmative action is leveling the playing field. >> to understand just how politically charged the issue is -- >> we want the best. >> consider this. >> one of the most important civil rights cases in over 20 years. >> one landmark supreme court ruling still stands as the benchmark for minority college admissions, but it came over 40 years ago.

and it involved a white man. alan baku sued the medical school of the university of california davis for reverse discrimination. the university had a quota. it reserved 16 spots for minority students. baki argued he was academically more qualified than the students who filled the quota. >> one, two, three, four, we ain't going to take it no more. >> the courts ruled in his favor in 1978. racial quotas were deemed illegal. >> alan paul baki. >> they said once again that affirmative action wasn't there. they said race could be considered in admissions but only one of many factors.

now another issue threatening to end affirmative action once and for all. this time the scene is harvard. asian-americans sued the school charging that harvard admissions officers disregard their sterling test scores and grades and hold them to a higher standard. though a federal judge ruled in october siding with the university, the case is far from over. that's because the man behind the lawsuit is edward bloom, one of the nation's most influential opponents of affirmative action. >> harvard systematically raises the bar for asian-americans and systematically lowers it for whites, african-americans and hispanics. >> bloom is about to appeal that decision and many believe it will end up in a national

showdown, many of whom are long time skeptics of affirmative action. >> one of the ironies is while it pretends to be about discrimination against asian-americans, it's really not. it's an attack on affirmative action for blacks and hispanics. >> but many colleges feel that affirmative action is still badly needed in admissions. a recent analysis done by "the new york times" found that black and hispanic students were more under represented at elite colleges than 35 years earlier. at the center of all of this is a complex question with no easy answer. if as thomas jefferson once posited, we should have a meritocracy, then grades and test scores should be the deciding factor, but the opposing argument goes those are just numbers that do not always tell the story of how enriching

students of different cultures, races and backgrounds may be. >> but here's what happens when only academic merit is considered in admissions. stiverson high school in new york city, it is one of the nation's top public high schools. graduate from there, you might get in. how do you get in? take a single test. it might sound fair but this is the outcome. in a city that is 15 perfection percent asian, stiverson is almost 75% asian. these demographics raise the question, can and should a standardized test decide who has access to the best schools?

>> the way they tried to deal with this is having a fair test deciding who gets the elite education. the consequence of that has been more and more unfair outcomes. >> in this year's freshman class, only 7 blacks and 33 hispanic students were offered places out of nearly 900 coveted spots. >> if you want to admit by those kinds of tests, it's at war with also wanting to admit more black and brown students. there's a historic racial gap on average in these kinds of a.m. dem mick scores. the gap is actually closing, but it's always been there. so you have to dial down the importance of the test to dial up your racial diversity. >> mayor bill de blasio has called to scrap the current admissions system in the name of diversity.

the furious reaction from parents and lawmakers led the mayor to say he was going back to the drawing board. >> the attempt we made to address it was not effective and we have to come up with a new approach. >> meritocracy versus diversity. must one come at the expense of the other? >> the two are in conflict. it's really one of the big fights in higher education. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

without the commission fees and account minimums. so, you can start investing wherever you are - even on the bus. download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. let me begin with a confession. i'm a member of the meritocracy. i went on full scholarships and i served on the board so i benefitted from the merit-based system and have seen it from the inside and know that college admissions officers are

overwhelmingly decent and honorable people trying very hard to balance all of the factors that they are being asked to consider when passing judgment on 18-year-olds and yet there is obviously a problem with america's meritocracy and the admissions scandal only revealed a small part of it. the critiques take one of two angles. the first is that america's colleges don't practice what they preach, that merit-based selection makes sense but in fact almost all colleges have retained or enhanced some of the old aristocratic levels or they forsake merit and lower the bar for well-intentioned reasons to let in more students from certain minorities at the expense of others. this view holds that what is wrong with the meritocracy is that it is not meritocratic enough. there is another criticism that

is more sweeping. it believes that tests are arbitrary and not fully indicative of talent, that using them select society's elites is nuts, that it creates an atmosphere of crazy and relentless pressure of those on the inside and permanent exclusion for those on the outside and because performance on these tests and associated rankings can be greatly enhanced by wealth and good education, it does produce a hereditary aristocracy rather than churning out a set of elites based on ability. both critiques have merit though i must confess i am drawn to the first, the idea that we need a better merit to being kra si. i understand the idea of merit but what would you replace it with? . the old system based on bloodlines and birth or an entirely subjective process in which they picked their favorites? when you're dealing with tens of thousands of applications and are able to admit a small

number, it means you have to rely on some blunt instruments like tests and grades. many criticize the reliance on these kinds of objective indices but few have been able to propose a workable alternative to them. that means they should live up to their ideals. they should focus on finding bright children from poor backgrounds who have great potential but don't score as well on these testing measures. many elite colleges today take in more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than from the bottom 60%. it cannot be that those millions of students have no talent, it's just that we don't have the mechanism to find them. even as the endowments have grown, the class sizes have expanded very slowly.

this emphasis on access should also animate politicians. the biggest problem with american education is that it does very, very badly for poor kids. as dan points out. >> comprehensively separates the rich from the rest in an increasingly unequal america. >> the gap between the rich and poor today is greater than between blacks and whites in 1954 when brown versus board of education outlawed school segregation. the american system of education does not provide many paths for poor, bright kids to move up, which is at the heart of the scandal of our declining social mobility. finally, let's take to heart that many people succeed in life even though they do badly on tests. tests are not the true measure of worth in life. nor does where you went to

college. it allows people who rise to the top to believe that they are better, that they deserve their success and that those who do not do so well deserve their failure. it makes us smug and insensitive reproducing the worst aspects of the clubby aristocracy of all. that is the greatest for failing of meritocracy and the wisdom contained in the declaration of the independence, the bible and most of the world's scriptures that all people are created equal and are of equal worth no matter where they got into college. i'm fareed zakaria, thanks for watching.

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i'm brian stelter and this is a special edition of "reliable sources." looking ahead to 2020 and beyond. how will we all be consuming the news, shows, stories in 2030? here with the forecast of the decade to come is futurist amy webb plus the outspoken billionaire mark benioff has a prediction for tech as well and i asked him why he decided to buy "time magazine" and i'll speak with "usa today"