Having followed with very mixed emotions this situation as it unfolded recently, I was much looking forward to this. However, as initially, in the publicity and comments when it came out, there was a great emphasis on the use of actors and re-enactments, I then became pretty doubtful. But when friends whose judgement I knew was sound, started to rave about it, I took the plunge -and am very glad I did. The dramatizations did not sensationalise it and they played a less significant role than press comments suggested -and it was always stressed that all of these were direct transcripts form wiretaps - and sometimes we heard the actual recordings.
Having been a College Counsellor in the USA for a number of years (but in a British international school where the majority of students wanted to go to the UK or Europe) I have some direct experience of those pressures and expectations although I was fortunate enough =not to have the sort of behaviours that some of these parents indulged in - or indications of the utter contempt that one parent in particular had for a school counsellor who was ‘doing the right thing’.
But as indicated above, the whole system is broken. It as interesting/comforting to hear people like the former Head of Admissions at Stanford say that SAT/ACT should be abolished as the only definite way to improve and do well in these is to be white and privileged. Even in my short tome ‘in the business’ it was becoming apparent that more and more colleges were rejecting these meaningless tests - or at least making the optional.
A part of the problem is that in the USA system the four-year college course is not like the three-year UK/European model, in that I think it is a (lengthy) end to a general education and the real high-level study only comes with the Masters - which is why that is so common in the US compared to Europe and the UK. I vividly recall a parent-friend at the school, who worked at post-graduate research level in the UK and who then, in her time there, did some post-graduate teaching at a local university - not I think, an Ivy League one (whatever that means) but certainly a good sound one - and her saying to me, almost in tones of disbelief that what she was doing at postgraduate level there would have been graduate level only in the UK!
And another aspect is the pernicious sports influence. In this story it was the elite sports (sailing etc) that were the focus - the sort of sports that only the very privileged could hope to ever experience. The story of the major sports, of course, is another matter entirely - there must have been at least one documentary about that notoriously corrupt and exploitative system. If anyone can recommend…
But there were a lot of good people there in this programme and they spoke out well and powerfully- not least at the end when some sentences had been handed out which, in terms of their proportion to the wealth of those involved were ridiculously lenient. I did feel sorry for the students to whom this was done and reading up on it, it seems that almost all were either thrown out from the university or, in some case, had to re-apply honestly. I was NOT sorry about that silly little girl, Jade whatever who had made it clear that she did not want to go to university. She had, while in school, already established a considerable influence, and a lot of money too, as an ‘influencer’ -and, tbh, anyone who does that ‘job’ surely is shouting that they are wholly unsuited to university!
At the very end in the credits, the comments of Stanford and their claims of ‘ignorance’ were stunningly infuriating and suggested that the corruption will continue
So, no, a good piece of work and if it has some impact that will be good - although the complete shopping list of what should happen (no standardised testing, an end to legacy entry, an end to literally buying your way in with multi-millions dollar ‘donations’ and an end to the world of exploitative sports ‘scholarships’) is unlikely to happen to any significant degree at any time soon.