Crooked college consultant William “Rick” Singer reportedly advised some of his rich white clients to pretend their kids were “minorities” in order to gain entry to elite universities.

Top schools have long given preference to athletes and children of wealthy alumni — and Singer took advantage of a new trend: colleges seeking students of color, the Wall Street Journal reported.

He advised some clients to change their white child’s race to black or Hispanic, and told a California woman, Marjorie Klapper, to lie about her son’s ancestry, according to the newspaper.

He warned her that not doing so could put the teen at a “competitive disadvantage,” the Journal said.

Klapper was one of many parents whose child was intentionally misrepresented as a minority.

In at least one case, applications “may have been based on a tenuous connection, such as a distant relative of Native American ancestry,” a source told the Journal.

The source said of the potential student, “There was nothing Native American about this kid.”

Singer, who has pleaded guilty to multiple charges, also arranged for a proctor to help the teen cheat on his admissions test.

At a hearing in March, Assistant US Attorney Eric Rosen listed Singer’s schemes, including “lying about students’ ethnicities and other biographical information in an attempt to take advantage of perceived benefits from affirmative action and other programs.”

Singer responded that “everything that Mr. Rosen stated is exactly true.”

Colleges count on honesty, and it would be difficult to catch applicants who misrepresent their race, Stefanie Niles, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling told the newspaper.

“You could have a student who looks white but who is multiracial,” she said.