Stanford Students Sue Elite Universities After Admissions Scandal

King of Hearts, Wikimedia Commons

Updated (3/14/2019, 8:53 p.m.) with comment from Stanford.

Two Stanford University students are suing colleges named in the unfolding admissions-bribery scandal, saying this week’s allegations show that the applications of students who played by the rules were reviewed under a fraudulent process.

The Stanford students, Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, said in the lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, that they would not have paid about $80 in application fees to Yale University and the University of Southern California had they known the systems were “warped and rigged by fraud.”

Federal prosecutors this week accused 11 university employees and more than two dozen parents of participating in an admissions-bribery scheme that involved falsifying aspects of students’ applications and manufacturing higher test scores. Nearly $6 million was paid directly or indirectly to college employees, according to court documents.

The students who filed the lawsuit said they had not received what they paid for — a fair evaluation of their materials — with those application fees. Both students said they had paid “without any understanding or warning that unqualified students were slipping in through the back door of the admissions process by committing fraud, bribery, cheating, and dishonesty.”

In the lawsuit, both students said the scandal would lower the value of their Stanford degrees: “Prospective employers may now question whether she was admitted to the university on her own merits, versus having parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”

A Stanford spokesman, E.J. Miranda, said the university believes the lawsuit is “without merit.”

“While we continue to closely examine our policies and processes to see if improvements should be made, we stand behind the integrity of our admissions process,” he wrote in an email.

Representatives of Yale and USC did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit. Previously, in written statements, each pledged to cooperate with the federal investigation. All three institutions said employees named in the investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” no longer work at the universities.

Admission Through the ‘Side Door’

Dozens of people, including famous actors, college coaches, and a university administrator, have been charged by federal prosecutors for their alleged roles in an admissions-bribery scheme involving Yale, Stanford, and other elite institutions.

• One Year After College-Admissions Scandal, 3 Questions About What (if Anything) Has Changed

All eight universities implicated in the federal case are named as defendants in the new lawsuit, as are William (Rick) Singer, his company, and his charitable foundation. Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, has pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering and conspiracy.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in a federal court in California, shows that the unfolding scandal will again bring legal scrutiny to fairness in elite-university applications.

The issue is already under close legal watch. This spring, colleges are awaiting a federal judge’s decision in a case challenging the consideration of race in Harvard University’s admissions processes. The case is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court.

Lindsay Ellis is a staff reporter. Follow her on Twitter @lindsayaellis, or email her at lindsay.ellis@chronicle.com.