She also admitted that she had thought twice about doing it and that she “thought to myself turn around... Just turnaround”.
“And to my eternal shame, I didn’t,” she added welling up.
Standing alongside her was her husband and actor William H Macy.
The judge explained that because the actress knew what she was doing was wrong, this was factored into her sentencing.
“She knew it was a fraud it was not an impulsive act,” said judge Indira Talwani.
Felicity paid $15,000 to boost her daughter's SAT scores.
“In my desperation to be a good mother, I talked myself into believing that all I was doing was giving my daughter a fair shot,” she wrote.
“I see the irony in that statement now because what I have done is the opposite of fair. I have broken the law, deceived the educational community, betrayed my daughter, and failed my family.”