Wealthy parents will, apparently, spare no expense to make sure their children can attend their dream school.

Even if their dream school experience doesn’t really involve, well, school.

That’s at least one of the lessons of the massive, nationwide college admissions scandal that has implicated a number of famous and wealthy Americans, most notably: Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

In Loughlin’s case, she and her husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid bribes totaling some $500,000 for their two daughters to be accepted to the University of Southern California as members of the rowing crew team, despite the fact that neither had ever rowed competitively “or otherwise participate[d] in crew”, according to charging documents.

One of those daughters is a celebrity in her own right. Nineteen-year-old Olivia Giannulli, who goes by Olivia Jade, is an Instagram influencer and YouTube vlogger with millions of followers and subscribers, along with her own branded makeup palette with Sephora. She is currently a freshman at USC.

In one of her videos leading up to the start of freshman year, she shared with followers a complete lack of interest in school – and a desire to attend just for the games and parties.

“I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend,” Giannulli said in August. “But I do want the experience of, like, game days, partying … I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”

She later apologized for her comments after extensive backlash, calling them “super ignorant and stupid”.

A month later Giannulli uploaded a “Get Ready With Me” video while she prepared for her first college party.

Even with the apology, Giannulli’s remarks are bound to add insult to injury to those concerned about well-resourced Americans allegedly illegally bribing their way through the supposedly merit-based word of college admissions. Back in 2016, at the beginning of this process, her parents were advised that her “academic qualifications were at or just below the ‘low end’ of USC’s admission standards”, according to the criminal complaint.

The system “is a zero-sum game,” said US attorney Andrew Lelling at a press conference announcing the charges early Tuesday. “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely-talented student was rejected.”

Adding further insult, according to charging documents, the fake donation of $400,000 paid by Loughlin and Giannulli to facilitate the scam was “paid to [a] foundation to help underserved kids”.

Mossimo Giannulli and Loughlin were among nearly 50 charged in the $25m scheme which involved families paying their way into elite schools including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford, along with USC. It is unclear if either of their daughters were aware of the scheme.

• This article was amended on 14 March 2019 to correct several misspellings of the name Giannulli.