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The admissions scandal in cartoons: How Signe Wilkinson has drawn college woes for two decades

The scandal that broke Tuesday speaks to an admissions system that’s rigged, and one I've been drawing since the 1990s.

Signe Wilkinson's cartoon from March 10, 2005 reflects the extreme lengths parents were going to in order to get their children into prestigious colleges even then.
Signe Wilkinson's cartoon from March 10, 2005 reflects the extreme lengths parents were going to in order to get their children into prestigious colleges even then.Read moreSigne Wilkinson

What a story: Rich people will do anything to get their spoiled children into prestigious colleges that reflect as well on the parents as it does on their children? I am so, totally, hmm — not shocked.

The scandal that broke Tuesday — involving 50 federal indictments in a scheme of bribes and cheats by which Hollywood actors and other wealthy people tried to get their kids into college — exposes an admissions system that’s rigged. I’ve been drawing that system, and its cracks, for decades. Some cartoons are so old, I only drew them in black and white. My drawings didn’t anticipate the exact current scandal, but having sent two kids through the admissions process, I am not surprised. I just love that our good old entrepreneurial country saw a need and filled it — albeit with an interlocking directory of corrupt SAT proctors, college coaches, and status-seeking parents.

» READ MORE: College admission scandal latest sign of corrupt system, says Villanova researcher

Some of my cartoons came from the Philadelphia Daily News. Others were inspired by my experiences while touring campuses with my own kids (“rock climbing wall on the left, vegan residence on right, trillion dollar new science center straight ahead”), which informed several weeks of drawings for my (now defunct but available on GoComics) comic strip, Family Tree.

Moving forward, I anticipate much highly paid hand-wringing from our elite universities and colleges — and very little change.