We just exited out of that great commercial bash —the season of giving. But in elite colleges and universities and among the mighty gatekeepers of college admissions, the College Board, the season of giving never ends. Like any garden variety criminal enterprise, the education Mafia operates a hustle victimizing students by “monetizing their personal information” under the guise of “connecting millions of test takers with colleges [and] universities.” After you’ve discovered that the bridge they were selling is a bridge to nowhere, you probably have a pretty good idea how betrayed millions of students feel when their eyes are opened. Conspirator 1 is the College Board, a billion-dollar operation, selling (they call it leasing) the names and personal information of the majority of two million test takers to 1,900 top-ranked colleges and universities, who turn the screw on these students by sending them promotional materials and encouraging them to apply (with application fees ranging from $50 to $90) even though they haven’t a prayer of being admitted. Who benefits as the doomed applications pour in? The schools as the applicant pool inflates and schools lower their admit percentage, their reputation for selectivity grows and before you know it, the ratings czar U.S. News and World moves them closer and closer to those coveted spots in the top ten. Since the mainstream media think we are all a bunch of dumb bunnies, they come right out and with no shame confess their complicity in the giant fraud—”A school’s academic atmosphere is influenced by the selectivity of its admissions.” Reading between the lines, keep the public thinking the rankings are the Rosetta Stone of a school’s ultimate worth. That way all the conspirators prosper: U.S. News and World Report sells lots of magazines to gullible parents and students, executives at both the College Board and elite colleges and universities take home million-dollar paychecks The details are more horrific and you’ll find them in “The Higher Education Mafia: Making Their Bones the Old-Fashioned Way: Defrauding Students and Rubbing Out the Competition.”