[Berman:] Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin will appear in a Boston courtroom today where they may enter pleas in the largest college admission scheme in U.S. history. CNN's Brynn Gingras is live outside the Joe Moakley Courthouse in Boston with the very latest Brynn.
[Brynn Gingras, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, John. Yes, Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin really have become the faces of this entire admissions scheme. I can tell you that there is media lined up all along the street waiting for their 2:30 court appearance. Let's quickly recap what they're accused of doing with this scheme. Felicity Huffman accused of paying $15,000 to alter the scores of her daughter to get into college. She researched a way to do it for her second daughter but never went through with a plan. We don't know if we'll see William H. Macy, her husband, here in court. He was mentioned in the criminal complaints but he was not charged in the case. As far as Lori Loughlin, her and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into USC as crew recruits, even though neither of them ever rowed in that sport. But they are just two-three people accused in this case that are going to appear in court today of about 13 parents in all who will appear before a judge. And really, we get a sense of how they might defend themselves against these charges. That's what we've seen with other parents because let's remember, they're only charged in a criminal complaint at this point. It's possible an indictment can come down or more charges for these parents in this case John and Alisyn.
[Camerota:] All right, please keep up posted, Brynn. This is certainly a story that has gotten the country's attention. Joining us now is Julie Lythcott-Haims. She is the former dean at Stanford University and author of "How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success." Dean, great to see you again. We first spoke to you when news of this admission scandal first broke and now we've have a couple of weeks. So I'm just wondering what your perspective is now and if you think that this admission scandal the lengths that these parents were willing to go to are connected to how hard it has become to get your kids into college this year?
[Julie Lythcott-haims, Former Dean, Stanford University, Author, "how To Raise An Adult: Break Free Of The Overparenting Trap And Prepare Your Kid For Success":] I think the scandal is simply the latest evidence that some of the wealthiest among us will basically buy their way into the future they want for their kids or for themselves. But unfortunately, their behavior has contributed to the misperception that there are a limited number of spots for people applying to college. I mean, that is there's a frenzy out there that really needs to be tamped down and here's what's happening. It's not that there are more kids applying to college these days.
[Camerota:] Yes.
[Lythcott-haims:] That number is staying pretty constant. It's not that there are fewer spots, it's that more and more applicants are applying to more and more schools and so it creates the perception that it's impossible to get in. If we could cap the number of schools a student could apply to right now, it's really unlimited. If we could cap the number at, say, seven or 10 we would instantly see admission rates at all of these schools go up.
[Camerota:] But, Dean, I want to challenge you on that for a second because the numbers do seem striking in terms of the acceptance rate this year at the elite universities. For instance, Yale has an acceptance of 5.9, OK? That's the amount of students that they accept out of the applicants out of the 36,000 applicants. At Stanford, your university, 4.3 percent are accepted. That is lower than when you and I were applying to college.
[Lythcott-haims:] It's lower because twice as many people are applying to say, so you apply to Yale. If Yale has 40,000 applicants they still only have 2,000 spots, right? That admission rate is going to be lower than if Yale had 20,000 applicants. My point is that students are applying to so many different every put it this way. Every student can only take one spot, OK? So if Yale had 100,000 applicants the admission rate would go even lower. But it's not that there are 100,000 more kids looking for spots. It's not that there are 100,000 more applicants. It's that each kid is applying to too many schools, OK?
[Camerota:] Yes, that's helpful. I hear you and I think that that makes sense. But hasn't it gotten harder to get into college than it was when you and I were 18 and trying to get into college?
[Lythcott-haims:] It hasn't gotten harder. There are plenty of great schools in the United States of America, OK? The problem is that most of us don't realize that there are so many options and so many great schools. We have this sense of scarcity that isn't true. "U.S. News" tends to report on the top 20 or the top 50 when in actuality there are 2,800 accredited 4-year schools in America. There is a Gallup poll in 2014 that showed that when it comes to whether a person feels they are thriving in every aspect of their life, from finances to intellectual development to their friendships to a sense of community, it doesn't matter whether that person went to one of the top 100 schools or the bottom 100 schools. What matters is whether faculty cared about them in college whether they had a mentor. And that kind of mentoring from faculty is available across the board. It's available at all the schools everyone has heard of
[Camerota:] Yes.
[Lythcott-haims:] and at all the rest of the schools. Schools with smaller brand names
[Camerota:] Yes.
[Lythcott-haims:] where you can get a fantastic education.
[Camerota:] That's a really important message.
[Lythcott-haims:] So
[Camerota:] I think that that's a really important message
[Lythcott-haims:] Yes.
[Camerota:] because people do attach, obviously, too much status to the Ivy Leagues and to just the top schools. However, one more question. Has it become too easy to apply to college with the common application? You know
[Lythcott-haims:] Well, that's what I'm saying.
[Camerota:] I mean, we had to do a separate
[Lythcott-haims:] Exactly.
[Camerota:] essay one or two for each different application that we did back then in the olden days. And now, has it become too easy for kids to apply?
[Lythcott-haims:] Alisyn, this is my point, OK? When you and I were applying, it just wasn't heard of that students would apply to 20 schools. Now you hear that quite commonly, which has artificially increased the apparent selectivity of schools. They have to deny more applicants because way too many people are applying to way too many schools. The common app is a wonderful thing when it comes to providing access to kids who are in underserved communities who might not otherwise really have the information available to them about how to apply and various schools that you can apply to. So it's given access to kids at one end of the spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum, the common app has made it so easy for kids who can afford it to just apply, apply, apply, apply to that many more schools really, with the touch of a button. It cost more money but in terms of effort the amount of effort doesn't really increase.
[Camerota:] Yes.
[Lythcott-haims:] Let me say this. I'm a I'm a graduate of a highly-selective college
[Camerota:] Yes.
[Lythcott-haims:] and I'm proud to say that my son is a small liberal arts college many people haven't heard of Reed College in Portland. There are plenty of great schools and the more we can widen our blinders as parents and look at them, the more sane our family life will be.
[Camerota:] That is a very great message. Thanks so much for all of the perspective. You know it well. Dean Julie Lythcott-Haims, thank you.
[Lythcott-haims:] Appreciate it, Alisyn. Thank you.
[Camerota:] John
[Berman:] "INSIDE EDITION" host Deborah Norville is out of surgery following a cancer scare. How one of her viewers helped spot the trouble. That's next.