Rick Singer faked students’ CVs in college admission bribery scandal. He seems to have faked his own credentials too
- William ‘Rick’ Singer has admitted to accepting payments in order to get the children of wealthy clients accepted into universities
- In a newly uncovered deposition, he seems to have also lied about his own experience as an expert on analysing college students’ applications
William “Rick” Singer was well into orchestrating an elaborate bribery and cheating scheme to slip his clients’ children into elite colleges when he sat down for a deposition in Washington in 2016.
Asked why he should be considered an expert in the field of college admissions, Singer outlined his credentials: He had worked on admissions committees for UCLA, the University of Miami, the University of California, Davis and other colleges, helping to decide which students should be offered spots.
He claimed to know what colleges did and did not want in an applicant. Parents sought him out, Singer said, because they “want to have an edge and have an expert that understands both sides of the equation,” according to a transcript of the proceeding obtained by The Los Angeles Times.
But the claim appears to be dubious. All but one of the schools Singer named in the deposition denied that he ever played a role in advising whom to admit and whom to turn away.
The episode offers a window into how Singer sold himself as an authority, a self-described “master coach” who could steer his clients’ children through the narrows of the application process.
