fatshot It's been a while since I've had to use a plumber, but I just payed $160/hour to have one come to our house yesterday and unclog a drain (after I tried for an hour or so myself). I wanted to say "does that include a new sink and faucet?" I was expecting about $100......Geez!!! Should have pointed my sons in that direction instead of college!!!

At least he didn't ask you to bend over. 😜

    I don't understand why a famous actress would have to do anything special to get her kid into almost any college. If the college sizes the parent up as a potential future big money donor, the kid gets in. And, famous and very rich people are that target parent.

      DonM I don't understand why a famous actress would have to do anything special to get her kid into almost any college

      It must have been easier to hire the services of this guy. He offered a guarantee. More will unfold.

        Par4QC I do agree that the trades are a great way to go if you have any aptitude in them at all. Good pay and benefits and easy to do side jobs for good cash. An electrician would be ideal in my mind.

            DonM I don't understand why a famous actress would have to do anything special to get her kid into almost any college.

            I was always of the same impression. I've always thought that if you had enough cash to pay full tuition you were in regardless of your academic abilities. I guess there's enough competition to get into certain universities that even the wealthy need to fight for spots.

              DonM I just read that for one of the kids the SAT score was raised 400 points...kid must not have been a mental giant to need that much help and still be far enough away from "perfect" score to be believable.

                garyt1957 Growing up, my stepson showed absolutely no mechanical interests. He was a very smart kid and student. After high school, he was one of those 'drifting', not sure what to do. He did get a job where I worked, must have seen something he liked on the rooftops, lol. He enrolled in the HVAC classes at a local jr. college. Graduated top of the class and was working the day after graduation. He's now foreman of the local crews and makes the kind of money that teachers, etc. can only dream about, plus great benefits. His brother, who was not showing anything in the 'scholar' dept., surprised us when he enrolled in the local electronics school. Worked for a casino after graduating, then got snatched up by a local hospital organization, as a computer tech. He's been their lead/head tech almost from the beginning, traveling from location to location(locally) keeping everything in shipshape. Not sure of his income/benefits, but I'm sure it compares with his brother's.

                  Our men's tennis coach showed up on the list. Looks like he got $100,000 to call a kid a recruit. Administrative leave for now.

                  I was wait-listed to get into college, had I not got in, I would have been upset, had I not gotten in because of BS like this, I would have been really pissed!
                  Most of these kids are probably underqualified for these schools, which brings down their quality of education offered, and worse, it leaves out otherwise qualified kids. Entrance should be based on grades, PSAT scores, and interviews, not bribes.

                  I took the ACT, paid the money, and in I went. It was for a University.

                  My wife told me about this story. I guess, for me, this wasn't a big deal as these things are the norm in my worldview. No surprise at all.

                  I get it if you can afford to make a sizeable enough donation to get your kid into a school. That's just capitalism at it's finest right? I don't care for subverting athletic scholarships or the like to get your kid in. That spot is meant for a kid that qualified even if it is for a sport that no one cares about. I would think there'd be a great lawsuit there if you could prove that student X didn't get in because of this tampering. You could probably make a case that their life was affected to the point of all future earnings.

                  Even if I could afford a scheme like this I wouldn't do it. Luckily I didn't have to as my oldest earned a couple of nearly full ride scholarship offers and is currently an honors sophomore at BU. I still wouldn't do it though. I'm kinda cheap and I qualified and paid for almost my whole college education myself. I was very fortunate to be born into a middle class family so I'm not going to say that I'm completely "self-made", but I've had some sort of job since I was about 13 and was an honors student (and marginal athlete....very marginal). My kids have about the same luck and I expect no less from them. I'll help as much as I can, but I'm not doing it all for them.

                  Typhoon Laurie Laughlin goes from "Full House" to the "Big House"☺

                  Wonder if she knows enough to cut a deal.

                    I feel for the kids who WERE qualified but got denied in favor of the rich kids. Reminds me of the Asian students currently suing Yale and Harvard. Students well qualified yet turned down so the schools can take lesser qualified students of a different race to meet a quota.

                      ClevelandTA7 I feel for the kids who WERE qualified but got denied in favor of the rich kids.

                      THIS!!!!!😡

                        I guess what amazes me by all this is the fact colleges do have limits on enrollment. At the same time, also amazed at the number of kids trying to get in after seeing stats on salaries or unemployment in certain markets, yet, plenty of good paying/good benefits jobs go unfilled.