The T.M. Landry Scandal: How a Louisiana School Faked Its Way Into the Ivy League

A unaccredited private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana became a national sensation when its students began landing acceptances at Harvard, Stanford, and other Ivy League universities. The viral videos were inspiring. The story seemed almost too good to be true. It was.New York Times reporters Katie Benner and Erica Green investigated T.M. Landry and uncovered a years-long college admissions fraud: fabricated transcripts, invented extracurriculars, and personal essays built on trauma the students never experienced. Behind it all was the school's charasmatic and manipulative founder, Mike Landry.This episode explores the rise and fall of T.M. Landry, the college admissions scandal it exposed, and who really pays the price when a system built to exclude finally gets gamed.

You can listen to The T.M. Landry Scandal: How a Louisiana School Faked Its Way Into the Ivy League online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The T.M. Landry Scandal: How a Louisiana School Faked Its Way Into the Ivy League is an episode from Gone South by Audacy Podcasts.

This episode is 37:46 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

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