A former classmate of Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade says she was suspicious of how the YouTube star managed to run a profitable social media channel, study and get onto a communications major course at the University of Southern California.
Harlow Brooks didn’t mention the name of the Los Angeles-area high school she attended for a week with the teenager who is caught up in a huge college admissions scandal, but many familiar suggested it was the private Marymount All Girls Catholic High School in Bel Air where the likes of the Kardashian family attended.
In a video posted last Thursday, the fellow vlogger claimed students took prescription drugs to survive the immerse pressure they were put under by helicopter parents at the tough school, and admitted she was confused as to how Olivia Jade managed to her influencer work with homework, let alone how she and her sister got into ‘extremely hard’ USC.
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Harlow Brooks says she was suspicious of how Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade was able to run a profitable social media channel, study at her tough high school and get on a communications course at the University of Southern California
Olivia Jade is caught up in a major college admissions cheating scandal that has at least 50 people accused of wrongdoing
‘I remember when I was touring the school I saw a picture of Olivia Jade’s sister actually on the wall with the seniors and it was like, ‘Congratulations Bella for getting into USC!’ And I was like, Wow … USC is super hard to get into,’ Brooks said about Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli’s elder child Isabella Rose Giannulli.
Sixty five percent of incoming USC freshman have a grade point average of 3.75+. SAT totals tend to be within the 1300 – 1500 out of 1600 range.
While being a first generation college student is considered, as is ethnicity, work experience and the interview process, USC considered the academic GPA, application essay, recommendations and test scores very important.
Olivia’s embattled parents – who did not attend college – are currently facing up to five years in prison for falsely presenting their daughters as crew recruits at the university and then allegedly paying over $500,000 in bribes to guarantee that both teens would be admitted to the school.
Brooks said she wasn’t surprised when the cheating scandal came out due to getting a look into the world of the privileged children at her high school which she decided was not for her after only a short time.
Harlow Brooks didn’t mention the name of the Los Angeles-area high school she attended for a week with the teenager but many familiar suggested it was the private Marymount All Girls Catholic High School in Bel Air (pictured)
As well as comments, Olivia Jade has a video on her YouTube channel documenting her last day at Marymount
‘Then I remember hearing later that Olivia had also gotten into USC and I was like, Whoa, that’s kind of crazy because USC is very extremely hard to get into. So not only one sister, but both of them,’ Brooks added.
Both Olivia and Isabella decided to withdraw from USC on Thursday, reportedly due the backlash their family had received since the news broke. The girls have no immediate plans to try and enroll in another school, the source added.
Overnight she went from a college student making upwards of seven figures a year to an unemployed drop out.
In the past few days Olivia Jade has come under fire once again for saying in a May 2018 YouTube video that she was ‘never at school’ and was more interested in partying at college.
Further inspection showed Olivia arrived at her dorm on August 16, 2018, a few days before her first day of classes, but the next day posted a photo of herself with a few other social media personalities on a Fiji trip funded by shopping app Dote.
She remained in Fiji for the entire first week of classes, and made no secret of the trip.
‘How does she travel for YouTube? How does she have time to make YouTube videos? An arrangement with the school or something?’ Brooks said she wondered at the time. ‘It just didn’t make sense to me. These schools, your life is literally, 100 percent school.’
Brooks claims some classmates ‘were taking Adderall, on antidepressants (and took) anti-anxiety’ medication as they faced pressure at the school that cost tens of thousands annually
In fact she claimed their high school was tougher than college and student had little free time.
But she put their admissions down to having famous parents or those wealthy enough to make big donations.
‘There’s a network of five to seven or so private schools in Los Angeles that are $30,000 to $45,000 in tuition every year. The work is literally harder than college. It is insane what these students go through to go to these schools because their parents think that they need to. They want them to go to Yale and Harvard and USC,’ Brooks said.
‘I would have to get up at 6am every morning and I would leave school at 4pm and then I would have six hours of homework. It made me think, “How is she doing this?”‘
Marymount fees are about $33,600 per year for the top grades.
Brooks claims that some of her classmates ‘were taking Adderall, on antidepressants (and took) anti-anxiety’ medication.
Brooks’ video has garnered approximately 2.65million views. In a follow-up video she claimed girls from the high school have threatened to sue her for her claims about helicopter parents in the previous viral clip.
Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli (center) allegedly paid over $500,000 in bribes to guarantee that both elder child Isabella Rose Giannulli (right) and Olivia (left) would be admitted to USC
According to documents, Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly emailed college cheating scandal mastermind William ‘Rick’ Singer in 2016 about their daughters’ college prospects, stating that they wanted to do the necessary work to see that the girls got into USC as opposed to Arizona State University.
Federal prosecutors in Boston charged Singer, 58, with running the racketeering scheme through his Edge College & Career Network. His network served a roster of clients including actresses and chief executives.
Some 33 parents were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer’s business.
Prosecutors said Singer’s operation arranged for fake testers to take college admissions exams in place of his clients’ children, and also bribed coaches to give admissions slots meant to be reserved for recruited athletes even if the applicants had no athletic ability.
Emails obtained by investigators revealed that it was soon decided that bribes would be paid to have the girls recruited onto the crew team, despite the fact that they did not participate in the sport. Photos were even taken of the girls on rowing machines.
Dr Donna Heinel, USC’s senior associate athletic director, first presented Isabella as a potential athletic recruit and she was approved for conditional admission.
It was then asked that a check be sent to Heinel for $50,000 from Giannulli.
Brooks often wondered about her classmate: ‘How does she have time to make YouTube videos? An arrangement with the school or something?’
Isabella received her admission letter the following March, which was followed by another note requesting a donation of $200,000 to Key Worldwide Foundation.
This same exact process was then repeated with younger daughter Olivia, the documents claim.
Problems arose however when Olivia’s guidance counselor became curious as to how she managed to receive admission based on her involvement in crew when she did not even row.
At the same time, Loughlin complained that her daughter was having difficulty filling out her other college applications, prompting Singer to ask an employee to take care of the task.
This was done so as not to draw attention to the fact that it was already confirmed Olivia had received conditional admission to USC.
Then, at some point, there was a very heated and public altercation between Giannulli and the counselor, which elicited an email from Heinel asking that this not happen again in the future so as to avoid further detection.
Loughlin and Giannulli were later told by Singer to say they had given the $500,000 to the foundation to help ‘underserved kids’.
The 19-year-old cashed in on being student during her brief time at USC since last fall. She posted sponsored content for Amazon Prime on her Instagram account in September that featured an image of her inside her USC dorm room but was ‘never at school’
The scheme involved parents paying bribes of up to $6million to get their children into these elite schools.
But everything began to fall apart in October 2018 when the IRS audited Key Worldwide and began to look into donations made by parents whose children were then admitted to USC.
Singer was charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
He has pleaded guilty and faces 65 years behind bars.
Olivia had been enjoying spring break on a yacht owned by Rick Caruso, the chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees, when news of her mother’s indictment broke.
Both parents have been released from custody after posting $1million bail.
But the former YouTube star was dropped by both Sephora and TRESemme on Thursday.
‘Mostly my parents really wanted me to go because both of them didn’t go to college,’ she said on the Zach Sang Show. USC considers first generation students during admissions process but grades and recommendations are very important
The 19-year-old has also cashed in on being student during her brief time at USC.
She posted sponsored content for Amazon Prime on her Instagram account in September that featured an image of her inside her USC dorm room.
‘Officially a college student! It’s been a few weeks since I moved into my dorm and I absolutely love it. I got everything I needed from Amazon with @primestudent and had it all shipped to me in just two-days,’ the post read.
Olivia Jade has said in the past she was pressured to attend university by her mother and father.
‘Mostly my parents really wanted me to go because both of them didn’t go to college,’ she said on the Zach Sang Show.
Later in that same interview, Olivia said of her father, founder of the Mossimo clothing label: ‘He, like, built his whole entire brand and he wasn’t actually, like – I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this – ever enrolled in college.
‘But he, like, faked his way through it and then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought was going to college.
‘That’s, like, such a different time. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that, but it’s okay. So he started Mossimo then and it sold to Target. He was a baller.’