Bribing To Get Into The Good Schools

What's the difference between paying for services (SAT prep classes, essay-writing coaches, and personal interviews) and just paying the school a bribe directly in order to get in? The latter seems to be the way things work in Russia these days, and Vladimir Putin, anti-corruption crusader that he is, is going to put a stop to it. He's going to institute a national standardized test, a Russian SAT, to replace the more subjective and "bribe-able" local admissions tests.