Two Stanford students filed a lawsuit Thursday against a number of universities named in the nationwide college admissions scandal.
Students Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods are seeking to settle a class action complaint because they believe the worth of their degrees has been damaged as future employers will question the legitimacy of their admission to the school.
Olsen claims “employers may now question whether she was admitted to the university on her own merits, versus having rich parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”
The students claimed if they had been informed that the admissions system at the respective schools was fraudulent, they would have never paid the admissions fee and applied.
The suit filed Wednesday in US District Court for the Northern District of California alleges negligence, unfair competition and violations of consumer law against William Singer, the head of the admissions scheme – as well as the founder of the Key Worldwide Foundation, a nonprofit. The suit also alleges the same complaints against USC, Stanford, UCLA, University of San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown and others.
Olsen and Woods are seeking compensatory damages with interest, punitive damages, payback of admissions fees paid to the schools when the duo applied, claw-back of illegal payments and the covering of their attorneys’ fees and court costs.
Stanford was tied to the admissions scandal through former sailing coach John Vandemoer, who pled guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy after he took $270,000 in bribes to admit multiple students to the university. Vandemoer will have his sentencing hearing June 12 in Massachusetts.
