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College admissions scandal

Mr. William Singer was from Folsom, Ca, a suburb of Sacramento. Parents paid Singer approximately $25 million dollars to bribe coaches and administrators to facilitate their children admissions to top universities. Mr. Singer allegedly led the scheme to bribe college athletic coaches and to hire ringers to take entrance exams. He has pleaded guilty to the charges.

I'm blogging about this as I have a high school junior who is about to take the SAT exams and no doubt it is stressful. Bottom line - the road you take to get you to your goal is yours. I can encourage you and nag you and cajole you but at the end of the day if you don't do it you don't own it. I really do understand the parents angst. What I don't get is how Mr. Singer could have turned a legit business helping Sacramento kids writing applications and navigating the path to get into schools into this scandal.

I didn't even think about going to an Ivy league school and ended up going to a big ten school and got an amazing education. My parents didn't even ask what my SAT scores were. There were supportive but couldn't pay for my education and really not that involved. I was extremely lucky to live in a State that had a fantastic University to provide me with that education and to be naive enough that I didn't understand there were many "better" colleges. That education allowed me to get into medical school and start me on my career path. My end goal was even more satisfying as I achieved it on my own.

Doesn't matter if its JC, or UC or State, what you bring to it is what matters. Find the fit that works for you, work hard and do what you love. I know many really successful happy people who didn't go to college. Don't let others define what it is that will work for you and above all else, do it yourself.