Privileged admissions to colleges

A flurry of parodies on Choi Soon-sil’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, has been released in the wake of the College Scholastic Ability Test that took place on Thursday. At the entrance to a test site, a banner placed under a photo of Choi and her daughter presented the question "which schools these two people hail from?" and answers reading "Chaum School," "Geun-hye School" and "Prada Horseback Riding School," which drew attention from pedestrians.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education revealed the result of a probe on Cheongdam High School where Chung had been enrolled, followed by the result of inspection into special favor given to Chung released on Friday by the Education Ministry, which confirmed that suspicions surrounding them as reported by media are truth. Special favors that Chung received from Ewha Womans University can be arguably labeled a full set of school affairs manipulation. The dean of Ewha's admission affairs strongly urged professors to recruit the "gold medalist," and the gold medal that Chung acquired on the day of the application deadline was reflected in her admission review after all. Certain interviewers reduced the interview scores of other students who received higher scores in document screening to allow Chung’s admission to the school. After her entrance to Ewha, Chung never attended any of the classes for eight credit courses she had enrolled, but she had her attendance recognized and received grade points nonetheless. Even a professor submitted her homework on her behalf, which is truly shocking and easily makes us wonder whether it was really a university.

Chung shifted to horseback riding after studying vocal music due to influence by her cousin Jang Si-ho, an athletic jockey during her high school years who was admitted to Yonsei University through a special recruitment program in 1998. People’s Party lawmaker Song Ki-seok raised suspicion that "customized favor" might have been given to Jang. Her academic records showing her ranking at 260th of 261 students in her high school have been made public, and therefore she has already lost her face regardless of whether she was actively granted favor during admission process or not.

When their peers were spending extremely stressful days due to enormous mental burden from college admissions process, someone was given the privilege of "free pass." Since Chung continued to enjoy special favors in class attendance and GPA management at Ewha, college students are furious. Some CSAT test-takers are gearing up to stage demonstrations ahead of candlelight vigils planned on Saturday, saying, "12th graders are now taking to the street. CSAT is over and (President Park Geun-hye’s) resignation process has kicked off." Demonstrating that everything is possible with power and money, Choi and her daughter have already committed grave crime by spreading a sense of deprivation and despair to Korean society.