Current Stanford Students File Class-Action Because Scammers 'Devalued' Their Degree

We have gone from outrage to idiocy in record time.

(image via Getty)

As if to prove that entrance to elite universities is not always based on raw intellectual merit, two Stanford students have filed a class-action lawsuit against the chief perpetrator of the college admissions scandal, and the universities allegedly involved.

The students claim, and I’m quoting here, that their degrees are “now not worth as much as [they] was before, because prospective employers may now question whether [they were] admitted to the university on [their] own merits, versus having rich parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”

You can read the full complaint, here.

We have already explored the studio space around the concept that the perceived “devaluation” of a degree gives rise to a cause of action. It does not. When the economy went south, law students sued their schools under every legal theory under the sun. Their cases were dismissed. You can’t really argue that your degree is not worth what you “thought” it would be, because the “worth” of a degree isn’t of an objective value anyway.

It is important to note that these students… GOT INTO STANFORD. They won! Things are going to be okay! I don’t think people who didn’t get into Stanford have a particularly strong claim. The theory that a spot at any university “owed” to you, but for the shenanigans of others, is not a sound legal argument. But the fact that these students, again, ACTUALLY GOT INTO STANFORD obviates whatever claim they think they have.

To get around this somewhat obvious flaw in their arguments, the students allege that they were tricked into applying to other schools involved in the scam, without knowing that the admissions process was rigged.

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One of the students claims:

“Had she known that the system at Yale University was warped and rigged by fraud, she would not have spent the money to apply to the school. She also did not receive what she paid for — a fair admissions consideration process.”

The other one makes essentially the same argument about USC.

For the frustrated Yalie, I mean, if you don’t know that the Yale admissions process is at least somewhat “warped,” then you probably aren’t smart enough to get into Yale. It’s one of those things where if you have to ask the price of something, you can’t afford it.

For the other student who feels cheated by USC… YOU GOT INTO STANFORD. WHAT IN THE HELL COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE COMPLAINING ABOUT?

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The lawyers who are helping these students make these claims are not helping matters. The students are represented by John F. Medler Jr., and two lawyers from Zimmerman Reed.

I did a quick cruise around their bios, and I noticed this curious line in Medler’s bio:

John is a native of St. Louis. He attended St. Louis Priory High School. For college, he attended Brown University, an Ivy League School and one of the top colleges in the country. He then attended Washington University Law School, where he graduated in the top of his class.

Buddy, anybody you have to tell that Brown is an IVY LEAGUE school and one of the “top colleges in the country” … is a person that does not care.

I feel like this is part of the problem that leads to the scam in the first place. We shouldn’t be acting like there are only three colleges in the country that are worth a damn. Your life isn’t over if you don’t get into one of those three schools, and you don’t have to spend the rest of your life explaining why you didn’t.

Of course, IF there were only three schools in the country worth a damn, STANFORD WOULD BE ONE OF THEM.

I expected lawsuits about this from students who didn’t get into the schools caught up in the scandal. There are students who, even if they don’t have a great cause of action, are morally right that this kind of scheme hurt their chances. A Kaplan survey from a couple of years ago says that 25 percent of college admissions deans felt “pressure” to admit less qualified, but well-connected students. There are students who are really harmed by this schemes and any number of “legal” schemes that produce the same results.

These Stanford students are not the ones! This is not the way. This lawsuit is the only thing that’s happened that has made me question the value of a Stanford degree.

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.