John Legend is the latest celebrity to weigh in on the recent college admission scandal that’s implicated actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
Both women are among the 50 people who participated in a college bribery scheme to get their privileged kids admitted to elite colleges like Georgetown, Yale, and USC. The news shed light on the rigged admissions system and how rich white folks for decades have bought their way into ivy league colleges.
During a recent red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Legend said he wasn’t the least bit shocked by the scandal.
“I think it’s a longer conversation because I think a lot of people look at this rightly as fraudulent and dishonest,” the EGOT winner explained. “But the bottom line is, the system has been rigged for wealthy people for a long time.”
As reported by Complex, the Grammy-winning singer is a product of higher learning. At the age of 12, Legend entered high school and graduated four years later as the salutatorian with scholarships to Harvard, Morehouse, and other elite universities. The music icon eventually graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
“The admissions system rewards people’s parents being wealthy and people’s parents having gone to a certain school,” Legend continued. “There’s a lot of legal ways to do that that still aren’t really that fair to a lot of other people.”
Meanwhile, Loughlin and her husband allegedly paid $500,000 to the University of Southern California to secure spots for their two daughters. As news of the bribery scandal intensifies, both Olivia Jade and her older sister, Isabella Rose, have dropped out of USC citing bullying.
Olivia Jade faced backlash last year when she posted a video in which she said she was only interested in attending college for the parties.
“I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend but I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone, and hope that I can try and balance it all,” she said. “But I do want the experience of like game days, partying…I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
After reading being hit hard with unforgiving backlash, she posted a second video apologizing and admitting she was “disappointed” in herself.
“I said something super ignorant and stupid, basically. And it totally came across that I’m ungrateful for college — I’m going to a really nice school. And it just kind of made it seem like I don’t care, I just want to brush it off. I’m just gonna be successful at YouTube and not have to worry about school,” she said in the video. “I’m really disappointed in myself.”
