Varsity Gray: A Times investigation into what really happened in the college admissions scandal

When the Varsity Blues scandal hit in 2019, it rocked American academia in unprecedented ways.

The federal case alleged that wealthy parents cheated to get their kids into elite universities. The prosecution pulled in business titans as well as celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.

No university drew in more defendants than USC.

Five years later, a Times investigation revisited the scandal with a trove of new documents that offer a more complex view of Varsity Blues and deeper questions about universities like USC that claimed to be victims of fraud.