Just because most colleges and universities are professional institutions, does not mean they always act professionally.

In fact, many can be quite scandalous.

Many established schools have had their fair share of scandals. The Yale soccer scandal of 2018, the Varsity Blues scandal of 2019, the USC cheating scandal of 2022 only name a few of the more popular scandals. However, there are many other scandals that have yet to be thoroughly discussed.

For example, the 16 Prestiges of 2022.

On January 9th, 2022, 16 colleges were accused in federal court of conspiring to reduce the amount of financial aid awarded to admitted merit students through a price-fixing cartel.

The 16 prestiges involved in this include Brown, the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), the University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice, Vanderbilt and Yale.

These schools, despite operating under federal antitrust laws, prioritized wealthy students in regards to applications and wait-listed “needy” applicants who qualified for more financial aid. Harvard and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were also linked to similar actions in cases involving affirmative action.

In 2020, separate cases also involving affirmative action involving Princeton, as well as Yale and Harvard, were directly associated in an investigation that accused these Ivy Leagues of violating or being associated with violating federal civil rights and admissions policies and attempting to abolish affirmative action through legal efforts.

In 2017, seven women from Dartmouth College came forward and accused three professors from the human research department of discrimination, harassment and sexual assault. The crimes dated from 2017 all the way back to 2002, over a decade of abuse. And after the case was reported to a professor, the professor was eventually also accused of covering up details and intimidating witnesses associated with the case. He committed suicide before the investigation could be further investigated.

These are just a microscopic fraction of the extensive list of scandals associated with popular colleges.

When informed of these events, North Hollywood students had passionate opinions.

Lila Duarte, a Tulane-committed admit that heavily considered Northwestern, comments on the 16 prestiges and Dartmouth scandals stating, “It goes to show that, in terms of higher education, it has been and will continue to be controlled by the wealthy elite.” She adds, “It really is terrible to see schools encouraging progressivism and women’s safety when we’re still not valued to the same extent as other people. They valued a staff’s position over other students’ well-being.”

June Woo Shin, a University of Chicago admit applicant comments on the 16 prestiges stating, “It’s not fair for people who are in financial need… It’s not really transparent with who applies. It’s really just not a fair system.”

Daphne Marin, a freshman who plans to go to college, states, “It’s so unfair that people dedicated themselves to their education and academics, just for them to be disregarded because of their class. This really is just a reflection of classism in society’s education.”

These reactions are just a fraction of the outrage many felt when hearing of these scandals. Many wonder if students knew about these scandals prior to their applications, would they have even applied to begin with? Would they have committed?

Unfortunately, we will never know for sure; this type of information does not reach students until months to years after the fact.

One thing is certain: keeping these scandals on the down-low is arguably just as scandalous as the scandals themselves.