Student Seeks Application Fee Refunds from UCLA Over College Admissions Scandal

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The infamous college admissions scandal—dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”—rolls on as another proposed class action lawsuit claims the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) accepted clandestine payments in exchange for subjecting certain applicants to a more lenient admissions process ordinarily reserved for student-athlete recruits.

The lawsuit, filed against the Regents of the University of California, argues that students who paid an application fee to the school should be refunded based on UCLA’s apparent misrepresentations that it would consider applicants for admission based on merits alone. According to the case, UCLA stated on its website that the goal of its admissions process was to identify “those unique individuals who have demonstrated the intellectual curiosity, tenacity, and commitment to community service” that the university expects of graduates.

“Selection is based on a comprehensive review of all information—both academic and personal—presented in the application,” the school’s website allegedly stated.

The lawsuit argues that this representation was false in that UCLA failed to state that it would also accept payment in exchange for designating an applicant as a student-athlete recruit who would be subjected to more lenient admission criteria.

According to the complaint, UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo accepted payments in exchange for his assistance in placing students into slots designated for student-athlete recruits. The case claims UCLA was aware of this alleged operation and therefore had “no reasonable ground” for believing the representations made on its website regarding its purportedly fair admissions process were true.

The lawsuit seeks to cover a proposed class of students who paid or reimbursed an application fee for admittance into UCLA within the past four years and until the date judgment is entered.

The case, which was removed to federal court in California, details just one facet of the bribery scandal involving wealthy parents who are alleged to have attempted to buy admission for their children into highly selective universities. Actress Felicity Huffman, who will spend two weeks in jail for paying $15,000 to raise her daughter's SAT scores, was the first parent to be sentenced. Just this week, a second parent was sentenced in the reported scandal for paying $250,000 to pass his son off as a fake water polo recruit for the University of Southern California.

The full complaint for the UCLA case can be read below.