CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Some parents around the country will go to any length, even if it's illegal, to get their students into select schools.

Dozens of people were charged this week for carrying out a scheme where wealthy people used their money to game the college admissions system.

Claire Kirby is the Director of Undergraduate Admissions at UNC Charlotte. She says admissions offices are used to some tricks.

“Things like students having someone else write their essay or misrepresenting themselves through a long list of extra-curricular activities that they weren't involved in,” Kirby said.

This case was a whole new level.

“I wasn't too surprised only because I understand the pressures of wanting to get into a good school, but I didn't know it was taken this far,” Kirby said.

Hershell McCarty and Samantha Weissman are students at UNC Charlotte. They say the pressures on students are bigger than ever. But McCarty believes some of it's unnecessary.

“People like to make a big deal about if you go to Yale or Harvard, you have a better chance of getting a better job somewhere but honestly if you just go to school somewhere you're going to get a job somewhere,” McCarty said.

Kirby agrees.

“It's not necessarily where you go to school, it's what you do while you're there,” Kirby said.

A Gallup-Purdue University poll of college graduates from a few years ago found the type of school students attend hardly matters to their current well-being. It found graduates of public colleges and those from private colleges were equally involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work.