Long Island SAT Cheating Scam, How Far Will Students Go to Succeed?
Seven people have been arrested on Long Island, New York today on charges over an SAT cheating scam at a local high school.
The teens were busted for running an SAT cheating ring in which Sam Eshaghoff, a 19-year old sophomore at Emory University, was taking money from high school seniors in exchange to take the SAT exam for them.
Although scams and SAT cheating stories are nothing new, this case is unique because it is being handled beyond the school system, and is going to be conducted in the court of law.
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The seniors that paid off Eshaghoff came from the Great Neck North High School in Nassau County. Eshaghoff graduated from the school in 2010.
Eshaghoff was being compensated between $1,500 to $2,500 to take exams for college hopefuls and according to New York Daily News, Eshaghoff was apparently “worth the money,” as he would score between a 2140 to 2220 out of 2400, the maximum score.
Eshaghoff was arraigned on charges of scheming to defraud, criminal impersonation and falsifying business records. Eshaghoff could spend up to four years in prison if convicted for the offense.
The others arrested are currently underage high school students and face misdemeanor charges for participating in the scam.
The scam required that Eshaghoff would come to SAT locations with fake identifications that used his photo but changed the name on the cards.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that the real victims in this case are the students that get denied to colleges due to those that have cheated.
She said, “Colleges look for the best and the brightest students, yet these six defendants tried to cheat the system and may have kept honest and qualified students from getting into their dream school.”
The new case is raising questions about the pressure young students face in the college application process, particularly with regards to the SAT, a standardized test that can have high large impact on the future of teenager's educational career.
It also raises the question of just how far students are willing to go to get into the colleges of their dreams.
Gregg Easterbrook of The Atlantic magazine says that the pressure on smart kids to get into top schools has never been higher.
Easterbrook writes, “Winning admission to an elite school is imagined to be a golden passport to success,” and added that as a result, “the fixation on getting into a super-selective college or university has never been greater.”
Many students take several routes to ensuring their college dreams including paying thousands of dollars in SAT prep courses and hiring tutors to aid them in certain subjects or with their entry essays.
However, the competitiveness of college applications leads some students astray.
Robert Schaeffer, spokesman for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Boston told the Christian Science Monitor that this particular case highlights the SAT arms race that takes place particularly in affluent towns. Schaeffer said, “kids think they are failures unless they go to a school where their parents would be proud to put the bumper sticker in their back window.”
It is uncertain exactly what schools the students that hired Eshaghoff to take their exam for them were applying to, but it seems likely that they may have needed higher scores to edge them closer to top tier universities, or to enable them to make it into university at all.
