It’s been five years since the infamous “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal” (2021) documentary scrutinized the state of USC admissions. Now, it raises the question: do the realities of this parental conspiracy and influence still impact admissions today?

For incoming freshman business administration student Starina Phu, parental influence was not a significant factor in the process of college applications. Instead, her parents offered helpful tidbits of advice.

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“They always told me that ‘You don’t have to go to an amazing college. You can do what you want, we’ll always be proud of you,’” Phu said.

Starina Phu’s father, James Phu, expressed sincere confidence in Starina’s independence throughout the admissions process.

“I prefer that she make her own decisions,” James Phu said. “And again, whatever she chose, I would support her — and in this case, she chose USC.”

According to Starina Phu, her father’s support — from financial support to driving her to film camp — helped her find opportunities and gain valuable experience to add to her list of extracurricular activities. In addition, Phu’s impressive performance in International Baccalaureate courses also led to her graduating within the top 3% of her high school class.

While the circumstances of Starina Phu’s admittance to USC varied greatly from those in the “Varsity Blues” scandal, she did take the situation into consideration while applying to USC.

“I was definitely worried that my application would be hindered by someone who was in a higher tax bracket than me, and that I wouldn’t get in because someone else paid their way in,” she said.

Although Starina Phu was originally admitted for the Fall 2024 semester, she chose to defer her enrollment at USC until Spring 2025, a decision based on both financial and academic goals.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that USC’s tuition is incredibly high,” she said. “I also wanted to get a lot of my [general education requirements] out of the way and potentially graduate early, and I thought this was the best way to do that.”

Similar to Starina Phu’s experience, the application process was also largely in freshman Sophia Arias’ hands as her parents took the backseat.

“My college search was really extensive. I did a lot of work to research every choice that I had available to me,” Arias said. “A lot of my application was centered around my passion for environmentalism. In my ‘Why USC’ essay, I wrote about the WMSC Institute — where we all get to do research at Catalina Island. That’s a really big part of the environmental science program, and that’s why I was initially attracted to it.”

She didn’t have any family that went to university but was always encouraged to apply to further her education and have access to more opportunities. According to Arias, it was her dad who initially wanted her to go to a prestigious school.

“My dad would want me to go where I want, but he also wanted me to go to UC Davis,” Arias said. “I think he thought of USC as more of a party school. But when we went to USC, he realized that USC was a better match for me based on the environment and the heavier emphasis on extracurriculars on campus.”

In indirect ways, Arias’ parents still made small impacts on the writing of her application.

“My mom read one of my essays once, and she didn’t like it. She just said it didn’t feel authentic,” Arias said. “Secretly, I knew she was right, so I did tweak my essay based on her reaction.”

Although less hands-on in the college admissions process, her mom did encourage Arias to get involved in more extracurriculars by introducing her to new opportunities.

“She was involved. But at the same time, my mom worked multiple jobs,” Arias said. “She didn’t have time to be going to everything I did. So I was more independent when I was in high school; I was mostly doing things on my own.”

Most of Arias’ application guidance was found outside the home, on her high school campus.

“I had a really good college career program, even though it had only two advisors,” Arias said. “I developed a relationship early on with them in my junior year, and I credit a lot of my application journey success to them. None of my family underwent the college admissions process, but fortunately I had them to lean on the whole time.”

Arias’ mother, Jamie Arias, stood behind her daughter’s work to get to USC.

“I don’t think we really pushed one way or the other — at the end of the day, college education is going to be good no matter where you go,” Jamie Arias said. “In the majority of her closest friend group, like myself, none of their parents had graduated college. So it was more like ‘We’re going to support you because we want this for you.’ Because as a parent, you want your kid to do better.”