HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: In wake of transcript fraud scandal, universities silent on admissions processes.

A private school has been accused of numerous unethical practices to help its minority students gain acceptance to prestigious universities including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and Yale, and these universities are refusing to clarify how they were fooled by the fraudulent records or how they plan to improve their admissions process to prevent it in the future.

T.M. Landry College Prep, a school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, has in recent years drawn the attention of several major programs including the “Today” show, “Ellen,” and “CBS This Morning” due to many of its students’ having been accepted at many of America’s most prestigious universities. Numerous students were presented as having surmounted difficulties at home to achieve outstanding grades in challenging courses and earn impressive honors in extracurricular activities.

A recent bombshell report in The New York Times revealed that much of these accomplishments were false. “In reality, the school falsified transcripts, made up student accomplishments and mined the worst stereotypes of black America to manufacture up-from-hardship tales that it sold to Ivy League schools hungry for diversity,” the paper reported.

Those schools, however, are refusing to comment on their application processes, declining to say if and how they will improve their administrative procedures in order to safeguard against future fraud.

I don’t think they really mind the fraud, as long as they have an excuse to keep their numbers up.