How to get your kid into USC when you have money and influence

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• USC admitted children of the wealthy and well-connected through an alternate path with an acceptance rate of up to 90%.
• Harris and Trump have entered the final stretch.
• Here are 15 L.A. restaurants that the 2024 World Series players love.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

In pursuit of donations, USC admitted affluent kids as walk-on athletes

It’s hard to get into USC, which has become one of America’s more selective universities. Only about 9% of undergraduate applicants make the cut.

But until fairly recently, there was another path used by parents with money and influence. As The Times Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton reported this week, USC quietly offered wealthy and well-connected families an alternative route to admission with much lower academic expectations and an acceptance rate of 85% to 90%.

Their investigation digs deep into a secret admissions subcommittee that processed the applications. Internal records show USC fundraisers anticipated significant donations from families of those admitted and, in some cases, became enraged when money failed to materialize.

Here’s more to know:

• USC says the issues are in the past and that it established new safeguards in 2020. “This fraud involved a limited number of employees exclusively in Athletics who are no longer with the university. We are glad this matter is in the past and that we have learned from it in order to ensure it does not happen again.”
• It underscores long-standing concerns about USC admissions and how it fundraises. When the college admissions scandal broke, more than half of the parents accused of conspiring to bribe were trying to get their kids into USC.
• Varsity Blues continues to cast a shadow. One parent accused in the scandal sued USC over the return of a $100,000 donation he made in connection with his son’s admission, along with $75 million in damages for what he claims were fraud and deceit by the university.
• USC is not alone. The Times in 2019 reported on cases where UCLA athletics brought on players whose parents offered donations to the school. A 2020 audit found University of California “falsely designated” at least 22 applicants as athletic recruits between 2013 and 2019 “because of donations from or as favors to well‑connected families.”

The week’s biggest stories

Voters cast early ballots in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 8.

(Paul Vernon / Associated Press)

What are Harris’ and Trump’s swing-state strategies for the final stretch?

• Harris and Trump are targeting voters’ fears as they make a final push for support in key states that appear to be toss-ups.
• Nearly 30 million Americans have already voted. But experts say the early voting numbers do not allow them to predict who will win.
• Trump says he’ll undertake the “largest deportation” in U.S. history. Experts say that’s unlikely.
• Convicted of 34 felonies, liable for sexual abuse and impeached twice, Trump still finds himself breathtakingly close to retaking the White House.

Gascón, L.A.’s progressive ‘godfather,’ struggles to keep his job as D.A.

• Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón is trailing his challenger, former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, in recent polls, and much of the incumbent’s support from 2020 has vanished.
• Gascón came into office at a time when the public wanted criminal justice reform. But he now faces an electorate concerned about public safety even with crime trending down by some metrics.

Other celebrities are accused of participating in assaults at parties hosted by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

• A woman alleges she was 13 when she was raped by Combs and a male celebrity, identified only as Celebrity A, while a female celebrity, referred to as Celebrity B, watched, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.
• Combs’ alleged sexual mistreatment of women was aided and abetted by a complex and vast network of enablers, according to a Times review of court filings and interviews with current and former business associates.

Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela is remembered by fans as the World Series kicks off in L.A.

• Fans have left Mexican flags, candles and other gifts at the base of Dodger Stadium this week in honor of Valenzuela, who changed Major League Baseball by sparking Fernandomania in the 1980s.
• Valenzuela exuded quiet pride, understated dignity and a high baseball IQ, writes columnist Dylan Hernández, who got to know the legend.
• Valenzuela was the man who connected L.A. to the Dodgers, columnist Bill Plaschke writes.
• A mural honoring the Dodgers legend in Boyle Heights has become something of an altar.

More big stories

• The Menendez brothers are one step closer to potentially being freed.
• A wave of major listeria recalls shows food safety will “never be perfect.”
• Some homes in California may have a hidden earthquake flaw. Here’s what you can do about it.
• LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries will open to the public in April 2026.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

This week’s must reads

(Zihui Zhou / UC Berkeley)

Half a pound of this powder can remove as much CO₂ from the air as a tree, according to a study from scientists at Berkeley. Keeping carbon dioxide in check is necessary for preventing some of the most dire consequences of climate change, scientists say.

“You have to take CO₂ from the air — there’s no way around it,” said Omar Yaghi, study’s senior author. “Even if we stop emitting CO₂, we still need to take it out of the air. We don’t have any other options.”

More great reads

• The Black Dahlia mystery may have been solved by a retired Los Angeles Times copy editor.
• Despite its stretches of open land, Eastern Sierra faces a housing crunch, with many workers living in vans.
• $1.80 dinners and budget clothes? The spread of frugality is hurting China’s economy.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

Dodgers pitcher Gavin Stone said In-N-Out Burger, the iconic California burger chain, is his favorite L.A. restaurant.

(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🧢 Dine like your favorite Dodger. Here are 15 L.A. restaurants that the 2024 World Series players love.
• 🌆 L.A.’s Chinatown helped reinvent Southern California. Now with energy from a new generation of Asian American creatives, it’s reinventing itself.
• 📿 In “Conclave,” a quest to elect a new pope leads down some less-than-holy pathways.
• 🎥 Labor organizers score against Amazon in “Union,” a complex, essential documentary, our critics writes.

Staying in

• ❄️ Heather Gay reflects on her success since being cast in Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
• 📺 Was the “Dating Game” killer an L.A. Times employee? Here’s a look at what’s fact and fiction in Netflix’s “Woman of the Hour.”
• 📚 Actor Jenny Slate talks about her book “Lifeform” and how motherhood has curbed her feelings of self-doubt.
• 🍗 Here’s a recipe for mixiotes de pollo (parchment-wrapped chicken).
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, Sudoku, word search and arcade games.

How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz

(Times staff and wire photos)

Which team did the Dodgers defeat in a 10-5 home stadium victory to earn their 22nd trip to the World Series? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Shelby Grad

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