There are talented people to be found most everywhere and I, for one, celebrate academics who have the intellectual capacity to do good and to help make this world a much better place.
Mark Riddell, in his own way, is a genius. He has the ability and the “range” to take college admissions tests and pass them with flying colors. However, he is not 17 but 39, and he takes those tests for other people.
He helps the wealthy to get their academically-challenged kids into prestigious schools. He is the latest domino to fall in the 2019 college admissions scandal.
“I’m Smart, You’re Not”
Riddell fell at the same time that an ex-University of Southern California water polo coach got slammed. Why? Because unethical behavior invariably unravels and catches other unethical people in its net. Riddell had quite the scam going, posing as other test takers. When the target focused on him, Riddell was charged by the US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts a fine of $1,000 for his role in helping to sneak a student into the university but he also had to fork over nearly $240,000 in ill-gotten gains.
And, as I write this, I think “What a waste!” Riddell could essentially take his world-class abilities and score as high as he wanted on the SATs or ACTs. He has pled guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud. Initially, he could have faced up to 20 years, and due to his cooperation in exposing unethical parents, coaches and administration officials, his sentence has been reduced to about four months of supervised release.
You may, or may not remember the name William Singer. Singer masterminded the admissions scam to enable the wealthy and entitled to get their kids into college. Riddell caught Singer’s attention as Riddell once owned a legitimate college testing preparatory company.
Riddell was paid $10,000 per test, prosecutors said.
Easy money
Some people are natural geniuses in automotive mechanics or architecture or medical diagnosticians. Riddell’s talent was test taking. Each time he sat in on an SAT, he could, if he so desired, to make a perfect score. For his test-taking troubles, Riddell earned a cool $10,000. It was easy money for him; a silly little game; a chance to screw the system.
A near perfect test score, plus bribing the right coach to let in a student who had no business being there, led to a batch of totally unqualified students taking the place of other athletes who tried – with all their might – to gain acceptance.
Parents of privilege, flaunting their privilege, gamed the system. My heart breaks for the really good kids and their parents, who were shut out of scholarships because spoiled brats and their self-entitled parents knowingly used people like Riddell, to commit fraud.
There is an old adage, I suppose, about working for something. The wealthy turned that around and taught their kids that they could always “find a bum” like Riddell to fix the process. In the end, the man who was the so-called test taking savant, was not very bright at all.
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS!
